Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement for Bulk Carriers and Ships in Ghent

Inspection services for ships at Ghent

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

Where gauging fits along the Ghent docks and canal

The steelworks quays on the canal are the most frequent setting for bulk carrier gauging in Ghent. Once the grabs have finished and the holds are swept, the ship provides lighting and access, and the team works through frames, brackets and hopper plating to the TM plan, adding the topside and hopper tanks where the crew can de-ballast and ventilate them before departure. Agribulk and forest-product terminals give similar windows on smaller bulk carriers and general cargo ships. Hull gauging in Ghent beyond the holds, such as deck plating and ballast tank structure, depends on what the crew can empty and ventilate during the call.

Ghent is not a dry-docking centre for deep-sea ships, so dockings are usually planned elsewhere — Vlissingen, Antwerp or further afield — and the Ghent call is used for pre-docking gauging that sizes the steel list. Readings taken here travel with the ship and are recorded in a form the docking yard can use directly. Ro-ro berths serving the Scandinavian services, and the car terminal, suit deck and ramp gauging during lay periods. Tankers loading or discharging biofuels and oil products at the canal-side tank terminals work under terminal permits, with tank entry only when the ship is gas-free.

• Steelworks ore and coal quays — hold frame, bracket, hopper and hatch coaming gauging on bulk carriers between end of discharge and sailing.
• Agribulk terminals — hold, tank-top and ballast tank readings on handysize and supramax bulkers after a grain or oilseed discharge.
• Forest products and general cargo berths — hatch cover, coaming and tween-deck gauging on multipurpose and open-hatch ships.
• Ro-ro and car terminal berths — main-deck, ramp and car-deck gauging on ro-ro ships during lay periods between rotations.
• Canal-side tank terminals — manifold and deck-line wall thickness on product and biofuel tankers, with cargo tanks left until a gas-free certificate is issued.

Steel trade, emissions rules and port state control in Ghent

Ghent's ships fall under Paris MoU port state control as callers at a Belgian port, and the canal and the Westerschelde approaches lie in the North Sea SOx ECA, and compliant 0.10% sulphur fuel or a scrubber is needed for the whole passage. Under the Paris MoU an older bulk carrier is a candidate for an expanded inspection, and hold damage from grabs and corrosion is easy for an inspector to see. Arriving with recent gauging and documented repairs puts the master in a better position if a port state control officer looks into the holds.

Decarbonisation plans for the steel and chemical industry along the canal, together with port and industry projects in hydrogen, carbon capture and biofuels, will change Ghent's cargo flows over time. Ore and coal carriers will keep calling meanwhile, and the owners of those older Panamax and supramax bulkers are weighing the carbon obligations that arrived with EU ETS for shipping in 2024 and with FuelEU Maritime a year later against the steel renewal due at the next renewal survey. Gauging supplies the steel side of that judgement, and a Ghent discharge, with empty holds and a planned berth time, is a sensible place to collect it.

Ships trading to Ghent are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Ghent

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

Brussels Airport is the nearest large international gateway, and Ghent is reachable from it by road or by train; Amsterdam Schiphol is an alternative when Dutch-side work in Terneuzen is combined. Port terminals are ISPS-controlled, and the agent arranges gate passes for the berth and confirms the canal arrival time. A team travelling from India needs Schengen visas, which we start on once you confirm the ship's expected call; with lock and canal timings involved, we keep the mobilisation date linked to the agent's updates.

• 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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