Thickness Measurement and Hull Inspection at Kotka and Hamina

Inspection services for ships at Kotka

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

Where we gauge ships at Kotka and Hamina

Most work at HaminaKotka is done alongside during cargo operations. Forest-product ships offer emptied holds before loading starts, and the team can measure tank tops, hold frames and the underside of hatch covers while the stevedores prepare. Because paper and pulp must be loaded into clean, dry holds, we remove couplant residue from every measured area before the hold is handed back. On tankers, deck plating, cargo and ballast piping and void spaces can be gauged under the ship's permit system while cargo is worked. Ro-ro ships at Hietanen are measured on ramps and vehicle decks between cargo flows.

Where a ship trading here is heading for a repair yard elsewhere in the Baltic, gauging in Kotka or Hamina beforehand hands the chosen yard measured renewal figures and the owner a firm basis for planning dock days. In the ice season, launches to the anchorage depend on conditions, and ships waiting for escort are sometimes easier to reach once they are alongside. We agree timing with the agent so that the team arrives when the ship is accessible, not when the ice decides.

• Mussalo harbour, Kotka — container and bulk berths; deck, hatch-coaming and accessible tank gauging on feeders and bulk carriers during loading
• Hietanen harbour, Kotka — ro-ro and vehicle traffic; ramp, vehicle-deck and lashing-area plating measured while cargo is being worked
• Hamina harbour liquid terminals — chemical and product tankers; deck plating, cargo and ballast piping and pump-room gauging in port
• Hamina LNG terminal — small-scale LNG carriers; deck structure, ballast tanks and sea water piping gauged within terminal safety rules
• Forest-product berths in both harbours — sto-ro, lo-lo and general cargo ships; tank-top, hold-frame and hatch-cover gauging before loading
• Anchorage off Kotka — ships held for a berth or for an icebreaker; reached by launch when weather and ice allow

Regulatory and market context in the eastern Gulf of Finland

Finland is a Paris MoU state, and the eastern Gulf of Finland lies inside the Baltic SOx Emission Control Area, where the 0.10% sulphur limit applies. Container feeders and ro-ro ships on Baltic loops are among the ship types that took up exhaust gas scrubbers, and the wash-water piping, discharge lines and shell connections on those ships deserve regular gauging because acidic wash-water thins steel pipe from the inside. Voyages linking Kotka and Hamina with other EU ports have carried EU ETS obligations since 2024 and FuelEU Maritime requirements since 2025, adding pressure on owners of older feeders and forest-product ships to justify steel renewal with measured data.

The chemical trade at Hamina brings the ESP regime into play: chemical tankers fall under IACS UR Z10.3, and their renewal surveys require readings across cargo and ballast tank structure, with the extent growing as the ship ages. CAP requests from charterers are common for older tankers. Ice adds the second layer. Under the Finnish-Swedish Ice Class Rules, a ship's ice class is tied to its ice-belt scantlings, and the Finnish winter restrictions that apply to the eastern Gulf decide which ships may call at all. Ice class hull gauging is therefore a commercial question here as much as a survey one.

Ships trading to Kotka 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 Kotka

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

The team flies into Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and drives east to Kotka and Hamina. Terminal access at Mussalo, Hietanen and the Hamina liquid berths needs an ISPS pass, which the ship's agent requests, and the agent also books launch transport for a ship at anchor. Finland requires a Schengen visa for our technicians travelling from India, so the job date is fixed against consular timelines and the ship's loading programme together. Winter jobs carry an extra allowance for icebreaker escort delays, which can move a ship's arrival by a day or more.

• 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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