Port of Bilbao UTM: Hull Thickness Gauging for Tankers, Bulkers and Ro-Ro

Inspection services for ships at Bilbao

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Gauging locations in the outer harbour and along the coast

Most work in Bilbao happens alongside in the outer harbour. Tankers at the energy berths are gauged under the terminal's permit-to-work regime, with deck, pump room and ballast tank readings taken during cargo operations and cargo tanks measured only when gas-free. Bulk carriers discharging steel or scrap allow hold and tank access once cargo is clear, and longer discharges give time for systematic readings on hold frames, hopper tanks and transverse bulkheads. LNG carriers at the regasification terminal follow that terminal's own boarding rules, and requests there are limited to hull, ballast tank, deck and piping readings.

Ro-ro and ro-pax ships on the UK and Ireland services are gauged during lay-overs or scheduled maintenance, with vehicle decks, stern and side ramps, ballast tanks and the fire main as the usual subjects. For drydock work, the Basque and Cantabrian coasts have shipbuilders and repairers on several estuaries, and an owner can combine afloat readings in Bilbao with a later docking without changing gauging teams. Winter weather in the Bay of Biscay can delay arrivals and halt outer-harbour operations for short periods, so schedules between late autumn and early spring carry some margin. The gauges and magnetic particle yokes are portable and travel with the technicians as personal equipment.

• Energy berths in the outer harbour — deck, pump room, ballast tank and piping gauging on crude, product and chemical tankers under terminal permits
• Bahía de Bizkaia Gas terminal — readings of shell plating, segregated ballast tanks and deck lines on LNG carriers while they discharge, under terminal rules
• Dry bulk and steel quays at Santurtzi and Zierbena — hold frame, hopper tank and ballast tank readings on bulkers and general cargo vessels
• CSP Bilbao container terminal — scrubber piping and engine-room tank gauging on feeder and short-sea container ships during cargo work
• Ro-ro and ferry berths — vehicle deck plating, ramp hinges and framing, ballast tanks and fire main lines gauged on UK and Ireland services between sailings
• Shipyards on the Basque and Cantabrian coasts — docking-survey gauging where work started alongside in Bilbao is completed in dry dock

Atlantic coast rules: PSC, sulphur and EU climate measures

No SOx ECA currently applies in the Bay of Biscay, so at sea the global sulphur limit governs, but EU rules require low-sulphur fuel at berth in Spanish ports, and ships heading north enter the North Sea ECA at the western approaches to the English Channel. Scrubber-fitted ships on Biscay routes therefore run their systems hard on the northern legs of their rotations, and wash-water piping on short-sea ro-ro and container ships trading between Spain and northern Europe is a regular inspection subject even though Bilbao itself sits outside an ECA.

Spain's Paris MoU obligations are discharged in Bilbao by the port's Capitanía Marítima, whose inspectors see a high share of short-sea and older tonnage on these routes. Emissions obligations under EU ETS, applied to shipping from 2024, and FuelEU Maritime, from 2025, weigh heavily on ferry and short-sea operators whose rotations run between EU ports and the UK. Many of those operators are renewing or retrofitting tonnage; gauging an older ship before a sale, a conversion or a decision on life extension gives the owner the structural facts the decision depends on, rather than an estimate built from the last survey report.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Bilbao meet it with an exhaust gas cleaning system rather than compliant fuel. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service, especially on open-loop systems, and are worth adding to the gauging scope.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Bilbao

A gauging job at Bilbao runs the same way whatever the ship type. The sequence below is what the superintendent, the attending surveyor and the yard can expect from us.

Technicians reach Bilbao Airport from India via a European hub, or fly into Madrid and continue by domestic flight or road; the outer harbour is reached by road from the city. ISPS access to the terminals is requested by the ship's agent, who can also book a launch for ships lying off the breakwaters. Our technicians travel on Schengen visas, so mobilisation is timed around visa issue and the vessel's expected arrival; winter weather in the Bay of Biscay can shift arrivals, and the plan is kept flexible accordingly.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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