Hull and Hold Thickness Gauging at the Port of Gijón (El Musel)

Inspection services for ships at Gijón

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

Gauging places at El Musel and the wider Gijón area

Alongside work happens at the bulk berths of El Musel. Each hold is opened for gauging once the cargo has been discharged and the ship has issued an entry permit, and technicians then move between frames, bulkheads and tank tops on staging or portable platforms arranged by the ship. Large ships have deep holds, so the practical limit is often access height; we agree beforehand which levels can be reached and how the remaining areas will be covered in a later dock. Ballast tanks, including topside and hopper tanks, are measured when emptied and ventilated.

For drydocking, Gijón itself has shipyards and ship-repair companies on its western side near the port, serving fishing boats, offshore vessels, tugs and coasters, and an owner can send a larger ship to another yard on the northern coast or Galicia. The practical sequence is to gauge at El Musel, build the steel estimate, and have technicians return for post-blast readings if the owner wishes. Anchorage gauging in the open roads outside the breakwaters is possible in calm weather but is uncommon on this exposed coast.

• Solid-bulk quays at El Musel: hold frame, bulkhead and tank top gauging on capesize, panamax and supramax carriers after discharge
• Liquid-bulk and energy berths: deck, ballast tank and piping gauging on tankers, subject to the terminal's permit-to-work rules
• Regasification terminal berth: hull, ballast and deck readings on gas carriers during their call
• General cargo and project quays: steel product ships, heavy-lift vessels and ro-ro carriers between cargo operations
• Repair yards and slipways in the Gijón area: smaller ships, offshore support vessels and workboats under repair
• Roads outside the breakwaters: limited pre-arrival gauging by launch in settled weather

Spanish inspection practice and bulk-trade pressures

The Capitanía Marítima in Gijón carries out port state control for the Paris MoU under the Dirección General de la Marina Mercante. Bulk carriers are one of the categories inspectors scrutinise, because hold frame failures have a long history in the sector, and ships bringing coal or ore to Asturias often appear on routes that include ports with a high share of ageing tonnage. A set of structural readings gathered before a ship loads again helps the master answer questions about holds, hatch covers and coamings with figures rather than with the last survey's summary.

Environmental and financial rules add another reason to gauge. Ships calling at EU ports need an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the Ship Recycling Regulation, and owners of older carriers often review structure at the same time as the IHM when deciding whether to sell, scrap or refit. EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime also raise the stakes for ships that burn a lot of fuel on long ore routes, and engineers deciding on retrofits want to know that the steel around any modification is sound before design work begins.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Gijón 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 Gijón

The sequence for a thickness measurement job at Gijón is short and written down, so the yard, the surveyor and the superintendent know who arranges what.

Technicians fly from India through a European hub to Asturias Airport, which serves both Gijón and Avilés, and continue by road to El Musel; Bilbao and Santander airports are fallback routes. The ship's agent arranges ISPS access and books launches where needed. Because Spain is in the Schengen area, travel is scheduled once visas are issued, and for large ships with firm discharge plans the visa application is timed to the confirmed berthing window.

• 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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