The Panama Maritime Authority, its consulates and SEGUMAR
The Panama Maritime Authority, AMP, runs the Panama ship registry through its General Directorate of Merchant Marine.
Provisional registrations, preliminary recordings of titles and mortgages and pre-cancellation notices can also be handled at the merchant marine consulates on the Authority’s official list. SEGUMAR offices give technical support and issue certificates. The Authority’s rules for owners are published as merchant marine circulars.
The General Directorate of Merchant Marine
The Directorate decides on registration, issues patents of navigation and radio licenses, sets special rules by category of vessel and can refuse a registration. Requests before it are filed through a lawyer licensed in Panama, while at a consulate the owner or a representative can file them.
Source: Law 57 of 2008, articles 2, 5, 13 and 23
Merchant marine consulates
The official list in circular MMC-3, of November 2023, names 52 consulates authorized to receive provisional registrations, preliminary recordings of title deeds and mortgages and pre-cancellation notices, plus Panama’s office at the IMO and regional offices in London and Manila. In 2025 the Authority’s board raised four more posts to merchant marine consulates, in Canberra, Guangzhou, Rio de Janeiro and Doha, which the 2023 list does not include.
Consulates carry out the acts delegated to them, collect fees, board ships when authorized and perform notarial acts. They can detain or delay a departure only with express authorization.
Source: Merchant Marine Circular MMC-3, November 2023; Board Resolutions 3, 4, 5 and 58 of 2025; Law 57 of 2008, articles 109, 110, 112 and 163
SEGUMAR
SEGUMAR is the Authority’s network of 14 international technical offices and 12 regional documentation offices. They offer services from technical consultancy to the issue of certificates. In what we have read, they do not issue provisional registrations, which belong to the consulates.
Source: SEGUMAR directory, May 2026; Law 57 of 2008, article 156
The circulars
The Authority publishes its requirements as merchant marine circulars, MMC, and notices, MMN. Some old circulars are still online after being replaced. Circulars 006 and 013 of 1981 on registration and deletion, for example, were superseded by MMC-233, revised in September 2016. Always check the date and whether a circular appears on the Authority’s list of cancelled circulars.
Source: Merchant Marine Circular MMC-233, revised September 2016
Questions people ask
Is the Panama Maritime Authority the same as the ship registry?
The registry is run by the Authority’s General Directorate of Merchant Marine.
Can a consulate issue a provisional patent?
Yes. The merchant marine consulates on the official list can receive provisional registrations.
Does SEGUMAR register ships?
In what we have read, no. SEGUMAR offices give technical support and certificates.
What the law does not say
- An official online search of the ships on the Panama registry.
- An updated consulate list that includes the four posts added in 2025.
Official sources
Header photo: Gualberto107, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.
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