Hull Gauging and Ship Thickness Measurement in China, Hong Kong and Singapore

China's ship-repair and shipbuilding clusters

China builds more ships than any other country, and its repair capacity is spread across several coastal clusters. The Yangtze River Delta, around Shanghai, Nantong and the Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo, holds a large concentration of repair yards, and the Zhoushan yards together form one of the largest ship-repair concentrations anywhere. The Bohai Rim yards around Dalian, Qingdao and Tianjin take bulk carriers and tankers on the northern trades; the Pearl River Delta around Guangzhou and Shenzhen serves container ships and South China traffic; and the Fujian yards around Xiamen sit between the two.

Owners bring ships to Chinese yards for renewal surveys because so many trades begin or end in China: iron ore and coal into the northern ports, crude oil into the terminals at Ningbo-Zhoushan and Qingdao, and containers through every major port on the coast. A bulk carrier discharging Australian or Brazilian ore can reach a nearby yard with little deviation, which is one reason many ESP ships come to China for their later renewal surveys.

Large repair yards here work at speed, with several ships in dock at once and steel renewal on a tight schedule. Gauging that arrives late holds up the steel list, so the useful approach is pre-docking gauging during the ship's last voyages, with the remaining gauging on arrival planned against the yard's dock schedule.

Singapore: anchorages, bunkering and ship repair

Singapore is the world's largest bunkering port, and its anchorages hold ships calling for fuel, stores, crew changes, repairs afloat and orders, as well as ships waiting between charters. That makes Singapore a place where a ship can be met between voyages without a dedicated port call: the team boards by launch, arranged through the ship's agent, and works through the stay.

Singapore's ship-repair yards handle dockings, conversions and offshore work, and yards across the strait in Batam and in Johor are often weighed against them in the same planning decision. Each sits in a different country with its own entry rules, so a docking that moves from Singapore to Batam changes the visa the team needs. We confirm the yard before applying.

Open-loop scrubbers may not be used in Singapore port waters, so ships with open-loop systems burn compliant fuel while they are there. A stay at anchorage is therefore a practical moment to isolate the scrubber and gauge the wash-water and overboard piping.

Tokyo MoU port state control

China, Hong Kong and Singapore carry out port state control under the Tokyo MoU, the regime that covers most of the Asia-Pacific region. Its targeting works on a ship risk profile built from type, age, flag, company performance and inspection history, and that profile sets how often a ship is boarded. Wasted hatch covers and coamings on bulk carriers, corroded deck structure and air pipe heads on older ships, and holed or distorted structure are familiar reasons for detention.

For bulk carriers on the ore trades, hatch cover and coaming condition and the hold frames draw attention at every port and every survey. Condition gauging of hold frames, hatch coamings and topside tank structure between surveys gives the superintendent the readings before an inspector or a charterer asks for them, and needs no class approval when it is the owner's own record.

Practical access: visas, shipyard permits and boarding

Indian nationals need a visa for mainland China, and a business visa application normally includes an invitation from a Chinese entity, in practice the yard or the ship's agent. Singapore and Hong Kong each have their own entry requirements. We start the application once the yard and dates are confirmed, and ask for the invitation letter together with the docking confirmation, because it is the item most likely to hold things up.

Inside a Chinese yard, the yard issues passes for the team and its equipment, runs the safety induction and controls hot work and tank entry permits alongside the ship's own system. Boarding a ship at a Chinese berth or anchorage involves border inspection formalities that the agent arranges. Yards often limit photography, so we agree in advance what the report photographs may show, and every change of plan goes through the yard's project management and the superintendent attending for the owner.

Reports are issued in English, with readings located on the ship's own drawings, so the superintendent, the yard and the surveyor work from the same sheets.

Ports we cover in China & Singapore

Each port has its own page describing the traffic, the yards and anchorages where gauging happens, and the jobs we see there. The full list of port pages follows at the end of this page.

Frequently asked questions

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