MARITIME

COUNTRY REPORT: PORTUGAL
(Photo: iStock)
Portugal
Searching for Lost
Maritime Glory
By Joseph R. Fonseca
Although a small nation on
the Atlantic shores, Portugal
in the 16th century was
credited with discovering
most of the “New World” previously
unknown to Europe. In the process it
became the richest nation in the West.
The names of Bartolomeu Dias (Africa),
Vasco da Gama (India) and Fernão de
Magalhães – Magellan, who led the first
circumnavigation of the globe but was
killed in the attempt – echo down the
centuries.
Over the years the country underwent
a transformation and saw the hard won
glory fade. In fact until 1974, strong
public protection dominated the national
shipping sector, especially regarding
merchant shipping to Portugal’s overseas
territories. In that period, shipping
policy was regarded as an instrument of
integration for the colonies and therefore
the Portuguese fleet received large subsidies.
In the second phase, when Portugal
lost most of its overseas territories, as a
consequence it also lost most of the merchant
shipping trade with those territories.
This had a direct negative impact on
merchant shipping.
Today, the country is caught up in the
turmoil of an apparently interminable
Eurozone crisis. The government is taking
initiatives to revive the country’s marine
industries – or create new ones in
a bid to recover its lost glory. Already,
in the port sector things are looking up.
The reform and modernization schemes
of the recent past have had a positive impact
on Portugal’s ports. The combined
cargo handled at the country’s ports has
shot up to 83 million tons in 2014, from
just 61 million tons that was handled in
2009. More is expected. Both Leixões
(Porto), Lisbon and Sines are in the process
of expanding their existing container
terminals and overall port capacity. In
these ports new greenfield terminals are
also being developed.
New cruise terminals have also been
developed for Leixões (Porto), Lisbon
(Santo Apolônia), the Algarve (Portimão),
the Azores (Ponta Delgada) and
Madeira (Funchal). The country is also
investing in a string of new marinas.
Shipping Registry
Portugal has two Ship registers for
vessels entitled to fly the Portuguese flag
and under the same Maritime Administration
viz. the Conventional register
and the International register. The Conventional
one is the “traditional” Portuguese
register of ships. It is carried out
by maritime authorities’ offices (Capitanias
or Delegações Marítimas) existing
in each port in Portugal. Ships and owners
in this register comply with all the
Portuguese applicable legislations. The
other known as the International Shipping
Registry of Madeira (MAR) was
created to reduce the country’s “flagging
out” process as well as to attract new
ship owners and vessels. The advantage
being that this register offers a favorable
tax regime, applicable to both vessels
and shipping companies licensed within
the legal framework of the International
Business Centre of Madeira. Ships are
registered by the MAR Technical Commission
(CT-MAR), with an office at
Funchal, Madeira Island, and their home
port is “Madeira”. However, from the
technical point of view ships registered
at MAR are subject to the same maritime
legislation as the ships of the conventional
register. Last year by the end
of September MAR became the fourth
largest international shipping register of
52 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • SEPTEMBER 2015