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Anna Healy Fenton

Watching container ships loading and unloading around the harbour, it's hard to believe most pause here for only six hours before  moving on to the next port.

Tight turnaround schedules are just one of the challenges facing Anglo-Eastern Group, which has 95 ships operating under its management from Hong Kong. Keen observers can spot the vessels flying the company's small but distinctive blue flag.

That Hong Kong-based Anglo-Eastern is today one of the world's top five shipping management companies with 10 offices  worldwide, owes much to evolving with the times.

Its eventful history began in 1966 when it was started by British entrepreneur Peter Nash.

After two decades running what became one of Hong Kong's leading ship brokerages, the late  Nash added ship owning and management to its activities.

A chain of events in the 1980s saw the firm pass into the hands of Belgian shippers CMB. They bought into Anglo-Eastern's ship management arm in 1985 'because it was doing very well and Peter Nash was so successful and good at making money', said Anglo-Eastern  chief executive  Peter Cremers.

The Belgians were Asia novices, he added, and were fortunate that Nash, a legendary figure in shipping, showed them the ropes and helped them make Japanese and Hong Kong business contacts. After a management buyout in the late 1990s, the Belgian team has kept control ever since.

The basic premise of ship management was simple: a ship needed an owner, then work and a charter, Mr Cremers said. 'Then its operation must be managed, from a supply of officers to maintenance and making sure she operates within the legal requirements.'

Shipping has changed dramatically in the  past two decades, especially regarding pollution and security rules, he added. Environmental disasters at sea such as the Exxon Valdez tanker have led to tighter operating restrictions.

'What's different is the way the world expects ships to be run, it gets harder every day just to operate within the new laws,' he said. 'The obligations of the ship's officers have become a major headache.'

Crew are not even allowed off the ship to go into port. In Europe a tanker will discharge its cargo at sea, 25 miles from Rotterdam, Mr Cremers  said. 'The adventure has gone out of shipping.'

This had made recruitment difficult, and now most of Anglo-Eastern's 8,000 seafaring staff are from India, with some Chinese, Filipino and eastern Europeans. 'In India a seafaring career is still held in high regard,'  Mr Cremers said. Anglo-Eastern employs 145 people in Hong Kong and has 160 ships under management worldwide.

Ironically, the stricter legal requirements and tougher economic conditions have left modern shipowners with little choice but to employ managers  such as Anglo-Eastern.

Today's owners are likely to be a pension fund or a bank. 'They don't know how it's run, they are only investors. Even traditional shipowners who know how to make money with their ships want to use managers,' said Mr Cremers.

'This company does everything for a ship owner at a cost plus fee. The commercial added value is retained by the owner, but the day-to-day business of making it work is done by us.'

Anglo-Eastern was also on hand to assist those owners who needed to diversify; the ones who knew tankers but nothing about containers, for example, he added.

Anglo-Eastern manages gas and oil tankers, containers, dry cargo and ships of any size. 'So an owner can buy our operational and technical expertise to help with whatever he needs.'

At the time of the management buyout, Mr Cremers and his colleagues were managing 40 ships for a handful of clients.

Now they have 20 clients, including several with only five or six ships. A total of 30 are Japanese owned. Their three biggest clients are Canadian company Fednav, with 22 ships - ice-breakers which ply the Great Lakes in Canada. 'Then there is CP [Canadian Pacific Ships] for whom we manage containers, and Dockwise, a Dutch company which specialises in heavy lift.'

Their competition was more from the world's leading ship management centres in Cyprus, Singapore, Glasgow and Hong Kong than from individual companies, Mr Cremers said. Worldwide there were about 10 serious ship management companies, he added.

These days Anglo-Eastern takes a somewhat different view to the other players. 'We have split the world into fleets of certain kinds of ships rather than by owners,' Mr Cremers  said. They manage dry cargo from Hong Kong and oil tankers from Singapore. 'If an owner gives us a container ship it joins the 45 container ships in Hong Kong. The ship is managed by a team that knows that particular type of ship like no other.'

In Glasgow, Anglo-Eastern specialises in liquefied gas and heavy lift.

So after decades of giving shipowners what they need, does Mr Cremers still enjoy the business? He shakes his head. 'Because of the new regulations and  restrictions it's no fun anymore. For me, the glamour has gone from shipping.'



Managing ships for investors   just not adventurous anymore