Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement in Malta: Grand Harbour, Marsaxlokk and Offshore

Inspection services for ships at Malta

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

Where thickness gauging happens around Malta

Docking work centres on the Grand Harbour drydock complex at Palumbo Malta Shipyard, where graving docks of different sizes take ships from ferries and offshore vessels up to large cruise ships and tankers. A docking gives the full range of access: bottom shell and sea chests in the dock, cargo and ballast tanks once gas-freed and ventilated, and staging for close-up survey in the larger spaces. Cruise lines use the yard for refurbishments, which bring scrubber and exhaust system work alongside hull items, and the gauging is sequenced around the yard's own trades.

Outside the yard, Marsaxlokk handles the Freeport's container ships and the tankers and bulk carriers using its oil and bulk terminals, with gauging done alongside under each terminal's safety rules. The Valletta cruise berths give turnaround-day access. Thickness gauging at anchor, at Hurd's Bank or the other designated areas, is done from a launch arranged through the agent and depends on the weather: these areas are exposed, and a sea state that is fine for bunkering may still rule out safe boarding with equipment. Where conditions are marginal, the work can move to a more sheltered spot or to the ship's next call.

• Palumbo Malta Shipyard, Grand Harbour — drydock gauging of bottom shell, sea chests and tanks, with close-up survey support during repairs, refits and renewal surveys
• Valletta Cruise Port — turnarounds in Grand Harbour, giving a day for exhaust gas cleaning pipework and items from the previous survey
• Malta Freeport, Birżebbuġa — transhipment calls on large container ships, used for ballast tank close-out readings and scrubber discharge line checks
• Oil and bulk terminals at Marsaxlokk — gauging of deck, deck piping and accessible ballast tanks on tankers and bulk carriers within the cargo window
• Hurd's Bank and the designated offshore anchorages — pre-purchase, on-hire, off-hire and close-out gauging by launch while ships bunker or wait for orders

Flag, port state control and emissions context in Malta

Malta is a member of both the Paris MoU and the Mediterranean MoU, and as an EU state applies the EU port state control regime to foreign ships in its ports. For Malta-flagged ships the flag state relies on recognised organisations for statutory surveys, and the class society concerned sets the thickness measurement requirements for each survey under IACS UR Z7 and, for ESP ships, the UR Z10 series. Under UR Z17 those measurements must be taken by a firm holding approval from that society, so managers confirm the approval position for the ship's class before booking any gauging that will be credited to a survey.

Malta's waters have been inside the Mediterranean SOx ECA since 1 May 2025, so the island's bunker suppliers now serve ships that must burn 0.10% sulphur fuel in the central Mediterranean unless they carry a scrubber delivering the equivalent. Ships that rely on scrubbers run them throughout these waters, and their wash-water and overboard piping is a frequent target when ships stop for bunkers. EU ETS, which has covered shipping since 2024, and FuelEU Maritime, since 2025, apply to Malta port calls and are followed closely by the island's ship managers, including those running tanker and bulk carrier fleets, where steel condition shapes the decision to keep or sell a ship.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Malta 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 Malta

A gauging job at Malta 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.

Malta International Airport at Luqa has direct European connections and lies close to both Grand Harbour and Marsaxlokk, so equipment reaches either port quickly by road. The shipyard and the terminals require ISPS passes arranged through the agent or the yard, and the agent books launches for ships at anchor, subject to weather. Malta belongs to the Schengen area, and the team from India enters on Schengen visas. Shipyard dockings are planned well in advance, which suits visa timing; anchorage work tied to a bunkering stop is best raised as soon as the ship's voyage plan includes Malta.

• 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