Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement for Ships in Durrës, Albania

Inspection services for ships at Durrës

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

Where thickness gauging happens in the port of Durrës

Gauging in Durrës is done afloat. At the ferry berths, ro-pax ships can be gauged between arrival and departure, with vehicle decks, ramps and the ballast tanks below them the usual focus; on overnight services the daytime stay alongside gives a working window of several hours. At the commercial quays, container ships give access to hatch covers and ballast tanks during cargo work, and dry cargo ships open their holds to the team once discharged. The ship's agent arranges port passes and coordinates timing with the berth operator. Where a ferry calls on a fixed weekly pattern, the berth and access arrangements usually repeat, which simplifies planning across several visits.

Ships at anchor off Durrës are reached by launch through the agent, which is the usual route for pre-purchase, on-hire and off-hire gauging. For full docking programmes, owners use yards elsewhere: across the Adriatic in Italy, along the Croatian coast, or in Greece. Hull gauging in Durrës before the ship leaves gives the yard a steel estimate for its specification, and the same team can be mobilised to the yard for the docking itself, which keeps measurement locations and methods consistent.

• Ro-pax ferry berths, port of Durrës — vehicle deck, ramp, stern door and ballast tank gauging on ferries on the Bari and Ancona routes between crossings
• Container quays — feeder container ships gauged on hatch covers and coamings, with ballast tanks added when the crew can make them safe
• Bulk and general cargo quays — holds, hatch covers and ballast tanks gauged on dry cargo ships once their cargo is out
• Anchorage off Durrës — launch-borne condition surveys for buyers, owners and charterers while ships wait for a berth
• Follow-on yard dockings elsewhere in the Adriatic — full docking programmes after pre-docking gauging in Durrës, with the same team mobilised to the yard

Regulatory and EU context for ships calling at Durrës

Albania applies its own port state control arrangements in Durrës, while the Italian ports at the other end of the ferry routes apply the Paris MoU regime, so a ferry on the Bari or Ancona service is exposed to Paris MoU targeting at its Italian end. That keeps structural condition on these ships under steady scrutiny, and gauging known corrosion areas between dockings is a practical way to stay ahead of findings. The Mediterranean SOx ECA, effective 1 May 2025, applies across the whole Adriatic regardless of whose waters a ship is in, so a Bari–Durrës ferry burns 0.10% sulphur fuel for the entire crossing unless its scrubber gives an equivalent result.

Albania is a candidate for EU membership but not yet a member. EU ETS, which has applied to shipping since 2024, counts half the emissions of a voyage that starts or ends outside the EU, so a Bari–Durrës crossing is partly within the scheme, and FuelEU Maritime, in force since 2025, applies the same half-share principle. For older ro-pax ships, those obligations sit next to the steel condition in the decision to keep a ship on the route or replace it. Visiting technicians also have to meet Albania's own entry rules, which sit outside the Schengen system.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Durrës burn 0.10% sulphur fuel or run a scrubber. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service and are worth adding to the gauging scope at every docking.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Durrës

Most of the work on a Durrës job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza lies between the capital and the coast, a short drive from Durrës, with European connections for arrivals from India. The ship's agent arranges port passes for the ferry and commercial quays, books launches to the anchorage, and confirms which berth the ship will use while port development continues. Albanian entry rules are national rather than Schengen, so we check what Indian passport holders currently need at the enquiry stage and plan the mobilisation with that lead time included.

• 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.

Related