The business of shipmanagement is moving beyond technical operations and cost control as owners increasingly look to managers for protection against geopolitical, regulatory, cyber and workforce risks, according to Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, the world’s largest shipmanager, as reported by Splash247.
What owners now demand
Writing in Anglo-Eastern’s in-house magazine AE Foresights, Hojgaard wrote that maintaining vessels, providing competent crews and meeting international regulations remained essential but no longer constituted a complete shipmanagement service. Owners’ questions had changed: discussions that once centred on off-hire, drydock budgets, procurement, crewing costs and Port State Control performance now extended to sanctions, geopolitical disruption, new fuels, decarbonisation rules, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and crew shortages.
“The role of a modern ship manager is not simply to operate ships efficiently,” Hojgaard wrote. Increasingly, it was to reduce uncertainty and give owners confidence that risks had been considered before they became urgent. “Owners are buying peace of mind,” he wrote.
Cost control vs. asset value
That shift challenged the long-standing perception of third-party management as a service purchased largely on price. Hojgaard described shipmanagement as a professional craft built around engineering, seamanship, institutional memory and judgement, rather than a commodity assessed solely through management fees. Cost control remained necessary, he argued, but indiscriminate cost cutting could damage asset value through deferred maintenance, weaker training and reduced technical oversight. Savings might appear immediately, while the consequences emerged later through breakdowns, detentions, claims, off-hire and reputational damage.
Scale without discipline multiplies weaknesses
Scale alone was also insufficient, Hojgaard noted. Large managers benefited from purchasing power, data and global reach, but he warned that scale without discipline could simply multiply weaknesses.
| Traditional focus | Expanded risk areas |
|---|---|
| Off-hire, drydock budgets, procurement, crewing costs, Port State Control performance | Sanctions, geopolitical disruption, new fuels, decarbonisation rules, AI, cybersecurity, crew shortages |
Anglo-Eastern's strategic investments
Anglo-Eastern was therefore investing across seafarer development, digital infrastructure, carbon services, cybersecurity and security intelligence. Its digital strategy connected specialist systems through a common operating platform rather than relying on a single all-purpose product. Hojgaard saw artificial intelligence as a tool to remove repetitive administration and improve monitoring, search and analysis while leaving ambiguous or safety-critical decisions to experienced people. “AI should increasingly replace repetition,” he wrote, allowing staff to focus on judgement.
Environmental regulation turns shipmanagement commercial
Environmental regulation was also turning shipmanagement into a more commercial function. The EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator), and future IMO measures increasingly affected voyage economics, charterparty negotiations, fuel choices, and investment decisions.
Implications for logistics partners
The result, Hojgaard wrote, was a broader and more demanding profession. Managers would need to retain traditional technical depth while adding stronger data disciplines, regulatory expertise, security analysis and talent development. “The ship remains the centre of gravity,” he wrote, “but the organisation around the ship must become smarter.”
For freight forwarders, 3PL operators and shippers, this shift means that shipmanagers are becoming more central to risk mitigation in supply chains. Owners’ demand for comprehensive risk coverage could influence charter rates, service reliability, and contract terms, particularly on trade lanes exposed to sanctions or environmental regulations. The ability of managers like Anglo-Eastern to deliver peace of mind may become a differentiator in freight procurement decisions.
Hojgaard will be speaking at the inaugural Splash Singapore conference taking place at the Fairmont Hotel on September 24.
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