Over 15,000 Indian seafarers are believed to remain stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting the practical difficulties involved in moving merchant navy officers and junior crews out of a conflict-affected maritime zone. Since the US-Israeli war on Iran, cargo ships have come under repeated attack in and around the Strait of Hormuz, with Indian seafarers among those killed and injured. The International Maritime Organization has recorded 46 attacks on commercial shipping since the conflict began in February 2026. According to data released by the government, 16 Indian nationals have died in conflict-related incidents, including 10 seafarers, while 75 Indians have been injured.
It is a challenging situation for Indian as well as global ship management companies that are primarily into the business of ‘managing’ ships. Ship management initiates a comprehensive commercial, technical and operational overview of maritime ships by specialised third-party companies or internal management teams on behalf of shipowners.
“We now operate in a period defined by fragmentation and uncertainty,” affirms Hojgaard. “Geopolitics has returned to the centre of commercial decision-making. Strategic waterways can become contested almost overnight. Sanctions are no longer rare instruments of statecraft but recurring features of global trade.” A ship management company is an accumulation of knowledge, judgement and experience, he adds. Running today’s ships well is one responsibility. Building the capability required to run tomorrow’s ships well is another. The two are closely related, but they are not the same. If capability compounds only through continual reinvestment, then the purpose of a ship management company cannot simply be to maximise today’s financial return. It must also be to increase tomorrow’s capability. That distinction may sound subtle. In practice, it shapes almost every management decision.
Trained at sea
“At Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, our own understanding of this has been shaped over decades,” says Hojgaard. “We come from a culture of practical ship management. We know that ships are real things, operated by real people, in real weather, with real consequences when standards slip. Many of us were trained at sea. Many have stood watches, dealt with machinery failures, faced difficult weather, or made decisions far from shore with imperfect information. That grounding gives both humility and clarity. We know that ship management is not a presentation or a slogan. It is a craft. This perspective explains many of the investments Anglo-Eastern has made in recent years. Our objective has never been to extract the greatest possible value from the organisation. It has been to increase the value of the organisation itself”.
Ship management is ultimately an information business. ‘Global Security Desk’ of Anglo-Eastern Univan Group is another expression of this broader philosophy, contends Hojgaard. “Security risk in shipping is no longer confined to a few well-defined high-risk maritime areas like the Strait of Hormuz. It is shaped by geopolitics, sanctions, electronic warfare, cyber exposure and the speed at which regional situations evolve.
In such an environment, the challenge is no longer obtaining information. There is an abundance of information. The challenge is interpretation:
understanding what matters, for which vessel, on which voyage, carrying which cargo, in which political context, and deciding what action should follow. These initiatives are all investments in organisational capability. They are intended to reduce uncertainty“.
He said that when a crisis occurs, the value of a ship manager becomes visible quickly. During geopolitical disruptions, ship-owners need more than general security updates. They need interpretation, escalation thresholds, crew support, coordination with naval authorities, flag states of ships, insurers and seafarers’ families ashore. Organisations like Anglo-Eastern that consistently reinvest in their people, knowledge, systems and operational discipline gradually become stronger. The return on those investments rarely appears immediately. It reveals itself years later, through better decisions, greater resilience, stronger client relationships and a reputation that cannot easily be replicated. The purpose of ship management has not changed. It remains to safeguard lives, protect assets and enable global trade.