Meet the New Director Shaping Portugal's Maritime Future: An exclusive conversation with DGRM's Vice-Admiral António Coelho Cândido

Portugal's Director-General of Maritime Administration, Vice-Admiral António Coelho Cândido, appointed in March 2025, leads the flag state that became the first to issue fully digital statutory and seafarers' certificates. As DGRM continued to evolve, the administration is expanding digital services while preparing for the smart ship era.

We asked Vice-Admiral Coelho Cândido about Portugal's competitive advantages, the regulatory pressures facing shipowners, and where he sees the fleet heading over the next five years. His answers offer rare insight into how flag administration is evolving to meet the realities of smart ships, alternative fuels, and global emissions frameworks.

Whether you're operating under Portuguese flag or considering it, this is the conversation you need to read.

Vice-Admiral Coelho Cândido brings decades of maritime leadership to DGRM, having previously served as Director-General of the Hydrographic Institute, General Commander of the Maritime Police, and Vice-Chief of the Naval Staff. Earlier in his career, he commanded the ports of Funchal and Lisbon, giving him deep operational knowledge of the registries EUROMAR serves.

EUROMAR: What makes Portugal a reliable flag state, in your opinion?

Mr. Coehlo Cândido: First and foremost, our flag maintains a proven, long-standing record of strict adherence to international safety, environmental, and labour regulations. This exceptional compliance is credited to robust management practices, rigorous involvement from classification societies, and active oversight by Portuguese authorities and involved stakeholders. The high standard directly translates into enhanced international credibility, ensuring faster port turnarounds and a significantly reduced risk of costly detentions for our vessels.

EUROMAR: How would you evaluate the outcomes of the latest IMO MEPC session held in October, and what role do you see for Portugal in shaping possible international measures to reduce CO₂ emissions from shipping further?

Mr. Coehlo Cândido: The necessity of a single, global regulatory framework is paramount. The ongoing delay in IMO regulations creates a significant market distortion, immediately exposing European countries to the risk of being penalized by their own "go-it-alone" regional measures, such as the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and FuelEU Maritime.

This self-imposed penalty manifests as both a loss of competitiveness for EU shipping and as carbon leakage, where reducing emissions in one area merely increases them elsewhere, thereby penalizing European countries and ports.

To effectively reduce CO₂ emissions without crippling our competitiveness, we must strategically advocate for the IMO's global framework to remain the primary regulatory mechanism, ensuring that the final, comprehensive IMO measures can supersede or harmonize with regional regulations, thereby preventing a fragmented and counterproductive regulatory landscape for international shipping.

Our foreseeable role in shaping these international measures should be focused on strengthening and reviewing existing IMO regulations, integrating capacity building and technology transfer to ensure a globally equitable transition, and prioritizing comprehensive impact assessments of all new measures for proactively identifying and mitigating any adverse consequences on global trade, transport costs, and specific national circumstances.

EUROMAR: Regarding the Portuguese flag, what key measures have been introduced to simplify stakeholders' interactions with the flag administration?

Mr. Coehlo Cândido: Achieving success hinges on cultivating a close relationship with stakeholders, grounded in a shared vision and commitment, that is essential for ensuring goal alignment, fostering cooperation, and maintaining coherence and compliance in policies and practices, ultimately promoting transparency, accountability, and trust.

This approach is especially relevant for early risk identification, facilitating adaptive strategies in response to technological, economic, or regulatory changes.

This commitment to collaboration and adaptation has been the key factor in our efforts to cut red tape and administrative burden by implementing measures that enhance transparency and administrative efficiency.

We have simplified registration and certification procedures, created online digital services available 24/7, and issued secure, verifiable online documents. As a result of these efforts, we were recognized as the first flag state to issue all statutory and seafarers' documents as digital certificates.

EUROMAR: Are there any further improvements planned, and what is the expected timeline for implementing them?

Mr. Coehlo Cândido: We are actively focused on enhancing our technical services by developing differentiated offerings for shipowners, ensuring compliance with evolving international and national regulations.

Our primary commitment is to proactively expand digitalization efforts to address cybersecurity risks, both ashore and at sea. Furthermore, we are driving essential regulatory updates, both nationally and internationally, to promote the highest possible sustainable standards, particularly concerning fuel sourcing, retrofitting pressures, and other critical areas.

EUROMAR: Where do you envision the Portuguese merchant fleet five years from now?

Mr. Coehlo Cândido: The Portuguese merchant fleet is poised for continued expansion, characterized by the upsizing of vessels, particularly container ships, driven by robust global trade demand (especially for seaborne trade) and the need for significant fleet replacement.
Regulatory pressures will be the primary driver of change and cost, demanding higher levels of compliance across the fleet. The next five years will constitute a pivotal transition period, moving past proof-of-concept for many alternative fuels, but grappling with significant scaling challenges.

The "bunker fuel" of the future will not be one thing; it will be many. In five years, the "chicken-and-egg" problem of fuel availability vs. ship orders will become a critical industry challenge.

Irrespective of the fuel source, all vessels will require a significantly higher degree of intelligence to remain competitive. A new ship will inherently be a "smart ship," built around a comprehensive "digital twin," with onboard AI becoming standard. This AI will play a crucial role in maximizing fuel efficiency and, consequently, reducing emissions. Onshore control will become a tangible reality, utilizing advanced tools to prove and monitor compliance effectively.

In response to this evolving environment, the flag state administration must rapidly develop new capabilities. This includes transitioning to more efficient processes and embracing advanced data analysis, driven by cutting-edge advancements in AI, machine learning, edge computing, and hyper-automation.