"There is too much regulation in shipping today, but I must say that more regulation is good for us as ship managers, especially those of us that operate on a large scale," he said.
"Regulatory compliance costs are so high that only big players like Anglo-Eastern with its fleet of 600 ships can meet these expenses," he told the annual Anglo Eastern press luncheon at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club earlier this week.
New ballast water treatment systems cost US$3 million to $5 million per ship. Then there is need for scrubbers to achieve new low-sulphur emission standards, he said.
"The very size of our operations, means we can get prices from suppliers few others can," Mr Cremer said. "This benefits us - yes. But it is a benefit we pass on to our customers."
Ship management has become more of a necessity than an option for shipowners, more so now after the Hanjin bankruptcy.
Banks won't provide financing to shipowners unless they have a ship manager to take over a bankrupt fleet if owners become insolvent.
Which makes it all look good for ship management in general and for the company in particular, said the company's new CEO Bjorn Hojgaard, who once headed Univan Ship Management, which has completed its merger with Anglo-Eastern over the last year.
Mr Hojgaard said that Anglo Eastern would continue to trade under its its old name, but Univan brand would survive in the name of the parent company as Anglo-Eastern Univan Group.
While the merger had been painful at times, the union had instantly created Anglo-Eastern as a "major corporation" and settled the question of succession.
Anglo-Eastern founder Mr Cremers, while still active as executive chairman, is in his early 70s and has handed over more functions to Mr Hojgaard
Executives at the luncheon also reported that piracy was less of a worry these days, Anglo-Eastern having reportedly paid US$8 million ransom to free its tanker and its crew from Somali pirates in 2012.
"Somalia has calmed down, though the violence in Nigeria is a problem," said one of the executive interspersed among the journalists at the horseshoe table.
"The problem seems to be that the [Nigerians] have no safe place to go with the ships. So they are more violent before they cut and run," another said.
Reports of piracy rising in the Philippines' Sulu Sea were dismissed as petty. "There was a fishing trawler, but no blue water vessels," said one executive.