It is business as usual for the managers at the Port Authority of Sines and the Algarve.
They run Sines port and a year ago took over the management of the Algarve's ports in a forced merger that many predicted would disadvantage the Algarve as Sines was pumped with investment at the expense of Portimão and Faro docks.
Today the head of the ports authority, based in Sines, made a true to form announcement that the desperately needed and long overdue expansion of Portimão’s dock facilities will not even start until sometime in 2017, maybe, depending...
Portimão desperately needs the income generated locally from cruise ship passengers but is hampered by its dock which preclude larger cruise ships from depositing their passengers, keen to walk around the city and spend some money.
João Franco, president of the board of the Port Authority, announced to media today that managers had commissioned a study, which is still going on, which simulates the entry of various sized ships into the Arade river and their docking at the Portimão facility.
This latest part of an interminable series of studies is just one that has been used successfully to delay any action.
Franco explained that there will be no "conclusive" findings much before the end of the year and reckoned that sometime during 2016 any preparations needed to fill in a funding form for the EU might be done. A year to fill in a form is about the speed expected from a dilatory and unconcerned management.
As for the actual construction work, this is anyone’s guess as the funding now seems to depend on the EU rather than the Portuguese government whose minister, the former businessman Pires de Lima, promised immediate action back in 2013 during his inaugural visit to the region.
"We will move forward step by step, solidly, because we are talking about a major investment," said José Pedro Soares, the Sines and Algarve ports administrator, who claims not to know what the maximum size of ship will be that can enter Portimão after dredging work is done, if it ever done.
This is the same Soares that in January 2014 said that the environmental impact studies prior to execution of the work should proceed immediately, anticipating that they would take 8-10 months.
The National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) was awarded a contract to study ways to improve the maritime access to the port of Portimão. This was due to be presented in November last year.
In the last 12 months, the ports authority has invested about €3 million in upgrading the ports of Faro and Portimão, of course with funding support from the EU, which has “improved operating conditions” but has not aded an inch to the docking facility in Portimão.
Portimão last year received 34 cruise ships and is expected to welcome 48 during 2015, according to Soares.
This business could grown from 20,000 passengers to 250,000 passengers keen to visit the city each year yet the Minister for the Economy’s pledge in August 2013 that €10 million will be used to extend the docks has ended in fudge and delay with EU funds now being cited as the funding source with inevitably lengthy lead times.
Portimão’s future as a cruise destination remains a pipe dream for the council which is staggering under €140 million of municipal debt and could do with some help rather than perpetual delay and hindrance from a docks authority whose priority is Sines, not the Algarve’s ports despite its new name incorporating the Algarve.
When the Sines Ports Authority was handed the Algarve ports to manage, it did not want the job, it has favoured investment in Sines over the Algarve ever since, and appears to think it acceptable to see Portimão sink into debt and further despair while it commissions report after report with no clear timeline for action nor desire to achieve something of lasting benefit to the region.
As João Franco said, "Sines is one of the top four ports in the Iberian peninsula, among the 20 biggest in Europe and in the world's top 100," while progress at Portimão passenger terminal certainly lacks the sense of urgency required to help get the city moving again.
