Madeira News Blog

(13th September). The last of today’s headlines : ‘Santo da Serra Takes In Biomass Plant – Nutroton invests €22 million for energy production’. Nutroton Energy, whose CEO is an ex PSD president, will install the biomass plant in the parish to generate electricity. The decision was taken unanimously by Santa Cruz councillors, after a proposal by the majority PSD. As well as produce clean energy, the plant will bring prosperity to the area, provide new jobs, and reduce the environmental problem of disposal of poultry waste. The land needed will be transferred without cost from the council to the company. The plant will have a capacity of 8 MW.

It’s probably more theoretical than practical for most of us, but the natural gas market reaches the final stage of liberalisation at the end of this year, a time when we the domestic consumers can choose our supplier, an option that is already available to large consumers. The liberalisation of the market started in January 2007, with EDP and Galp dominating the market up until then. Switching suppliers will cost nothing, but as most of us on Madeira probably use bottled gas we will not see much impact, although the impact of liberalisation on gas pricing is yet to be seen.

(12th September). ‘Fund Doesn’t Thrive – Only one family on Madeira has signed up to the fund created to help those who can’t pay their monthly bank mortgage payments’. The central government created scheme was there to help families during the crisis who were in arrears with their mortgages, by allowing them to give up ownership, but pay rent instead, until times improved. The truth is that the results show that the Portuguese, and Madeira in particular, did not believe in this product, which allowed the ‘tenant’ the right to buy back their property until the end of 2020. The banks were not keen to get involved, being one problem, but the massive retreat in interest rates also made the whole scheme less necessary.

‘Construction Slows But It Doesn’t Stop – Home building registers the lowest fall in Portugal’. It is a significant statistic. Madeira is the region of Portugal with the smallest fall in the construction of domestic properties, signalling that the crisis has not hit as hard here in the construction sector. In the first two quarters of this year, 275 homes were licensed, a fall of 27.6%. That compares with falls of 69% in the Azores, the worst, 55% in the Algarve, and 54% in Lisbon. In 2008 the number of residential buildings on Madeira was estimated at 82,735, with the actual number of homes within those estimated to be 119,995. 32% of these buildings are located in Funchal, 16% in Santa Cruz, and 11% in Câmara de lobos.

(13th September). The count for visiting cruise ships continues to impress. 35 are due in Funchal next month, and another 100 are expected in the final two months of 2009. The three month period will see over 220,000 tourists arriving by cruise ship, by far more than any other Portuguese port. November alone will see around 100,000 visitors here (54 cruise ships).

(12th September). ‘Lobo Marinho Will Undertake More Journeys To Porto Santo In October’. An extra six crossings will be fitted in, with Porto Santo Line rejigging it’s schedule for the big Porto Santo weekend of 3rd to 5th October. High demand for that weekend will be catered for through twice daily trips on 2nd, 5th & 6th October. Monday 5th October is a public holiday, and many Madeirans want to make a long weekend break on the golden island.

(11th September). The last of today’s headlines : ‘Fisco Recovers €12.2 Million In 7 Months – The Madeirans flee less from their financial obligations but the coerced revenue increases’. The treasury is benefiting from citizens feeling more inclined to pay their taxes, despite financial difficulties in families and businesses. More effective collection and checking from the Regional Directorate of Fiscal Affairs means that taxpayers are becoming more compliant. Some fines for late or non-payment have also decreased, and the number of court actions are lower comparatively than in mainland Portugal.

(10th September). ‘Finanças To Replace Letters With Emails – Electronic communications with the taxpayer starting in earnest this month’. The Directorate General for Taxation (DGCI) wants to finish with the paperwork and reduce costs. The action will need a progressive implementation, starting next Tuesday, because "we need to change the attitudes and habits", says a spokesman.

In the same article, the DGCI says it has 75,000 cars it needs to sell, that were seized for non payment of taxes. It aims to sell all of these by the end of this year. A spokesman says that cars are the most ‘seized’ item, followed by household goods and ‘bank accounts’, for non payment of taxes.

(11th September). ‘Ports Promote Terminal – Partnership with the Canaries is better value for the Port of Funchal’. The port of Funchal will be present in the trade fair ‘Seatrade Europe’, which this year will take place in the city of Hamburg from the 15th to 17th of this month. This year the representation is in partnership with the Canary islands, through (the theme) ‘Cruises in the Atlantic Islands’, which has a 48 square metre stand. Asked about the importance of this event for the region, particularly with regard to the port area, Bruno Freitas of the port authority APRAM acknowledged that "the representation of APRAM at this show serves as an effective promotion of Madeira Islands, and the Port of Funchal as one of the more competitive cruise ports in this area of the Atlantic, but also in the continuity of work on publicity and projection that have been held regarding the new Maritime Passenger Terminal". He reminded that work has already been done in this respect in Lisbon in January, as well as in Miami, the largest fair in the market, that took place in March this year.  "APRAM is promoting, along with national ports, the creation of new partnerships to explore new routes with the aim of attracting more cruise ships to the Port of Funchal, highlighting in this way its seasonality", he said. November this year will be the busiest and important month with 54 cruise ships visiting, some on repositioning journeys for a new cruise season, and able to see the construction of this new facility.

In a related article . ‘Project Alterations Could Delay Completion Of The Terminal’. The port authority APRAM guarantees that alterations being made to the new terminal, so that it can accommodate it’s own services, will not delay the inauguration. But the truth is that that opinion is certainly not shared by those who are on the site, having been obliged to take down structures (walls) to ensure the right configuration. The president of APRAM said "the changes in the project are designed to ensure the maximum functionality and comfort of passengers boarding and disembarking, as well as improved conditions for passengers in transit". "These changes at no time have caused any inconvenience or delay in carrying out the work, which, incidentally, continues on schedule", he added. The Diário believes that completion by the deadline of December 2010 is in jeopardy. APRAM has until December 2010 to complete the work without penalty to the €7 million granted by the Cohesion Fund.

‘Parpública Says That TAP Is In A Critical Situation’. The TAP airline group has a negative equity of €247.2 million, up from €171.7 million at the end of 2008, as shown in the half-yearly accounts. According to the biannual report of Parpública, sole shareholder of the Portuguese airline, the "critical financial situation" remains critical due to the "negative result obtained in the first 6 months of this year".

‘Hotel Occupation Rate Currently At Around 75% – The numbers are better than 2008′. That’s 3% higher than the same time last year. The regional director for tourism revealed the figures yesterday, saying that the improvement is (partly?) down to the wine festival programme that her department has invested €129 thousand in. She said awareness of the wine festival definitely attracts tourists who are aware of the event, and the entertainment that goes with it. The information for the event is available on the internet as far forward as 2012. Most of the activities are centred in Avenida Arriaga, but the focus shifts to Estreito de Câmara de Lobos on the 5th September.

‘More Domestic Passengers’. Madeira Airport is the Portuguese airport which had the largest growth of domestic traffic in July, with growth of 15.4% over the same month last year, which equates to 117,800 passengers. International passengers fell 19.1%, to 96,100 in the comparison of the same months. In the seven months to July 2009, Madeira Airport had an overall fall in passenger numbers of 5.5% to 1.36 million, whilst domestic traffic grew 12.2% to 671,700 passengers.

‘Santa Barbara Airlines Launches Funchal To Caracas At €390 – Venezuela more accessible until December’. The flight already exists as far as I know, but the prices are new, in a campaign called ‘Anti-crisis prices’. The flights will be available from 1st October until 12th December, and are priced from €390.

‘Surveillance Launch Lost – ‘Escorpião’ returns to Lisbon after a 2 month period of service in the region’. The Portuguese Navy vessel will finish its service here on Sunday, after coming here to reinforce control of Madeira’s waters on 4th July. It’s duties included safeguarding lives at sea, fishing enforcement activities, and other actions.