Ship Thickness Measurement in Marseille and Fos-sur-Mer

Inspection services for ships at Marseille

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

Gauging locations in Marseille, Fos and Lavéra

In the city, the Chantier Naval de Marseille operates the repair docks, including Forme 10, one of the largest dry docks in the Mediterranean and the dock used for large cruise ship dockings. A docking at Forme 10 is the best gauging opportunity in the port: tanks are opened, staging goes up for the yard's own work, and the gauging can run alongside blasting and steelwork in the same programme. The ferry and cruise berths are used for repair afloat between voyages, but turnarounds are short and passenger operations take priority, so gauging there is limited to machinery spaces, tanks the chief engineer can release and exposed decks.

At Fos and Lavéra the work is tanker and bulk work. Terminal safety rules govern what can be done at the berth: ballast-tank entry during cargo operations needs the terminal's agreement and a valid permit, so many owners prefer to gauge at the anchorage while the ship waits. Container ships at the Fos terminals are handled like other short calls, with ballast tanks and deck structure first. The mistral matters here. The north-westerly wind that funnels down the Rhône valley can stop launch transfers at the Fos anchorage for days at a time, so gauging plans for anchored ships carry a weather allowance.

• Forme 10, Chantier Naval de Marseille — renewal-survey and docking gauging on cruise ships, ferries and large merchant ships, worked in step with the yard's blasting and steel programme.
• Other repair docks and repair quays in the city basins — gauging on ro-pax ferries and smaller ships during dockings and repair afloat between sailings.
• Ferry and cruise berths in the eastern basins — short-window gauging of vehicle decks, ramps, machinery-space tanks and scrubber piping during turnarounds.
• Lavéra and Fos oil berths — ballast-tank and deck gauging on crude, product and chemical tankers within the terminal's permit-to-work rules.
• LNG terminals at Fos — LNG carrier thickness measurement in ballast tanks and hull structure, coordinated with the terminal's gas-safety requirements.
• Fos anchorage — launch-served gauging on tankers and bulk carriers waiting for a berth, with a weather allowance for the mistral.
• Fos container and dry-bulk terminals — ballast-tank, hatch coaming and hopper tank gauging on container ships and ore or coal carriers during their calls.

Mediterranean ECA, port state control and the Marseille shipping cluster

The Mediterranean Sea SOx ECA took effect on 1 May 2025, bringing the 0.10% sulphur limit to the whole basin. Ferries and cruise ships out of Marseille that met the global 0.50% cap by running scrubbers now need them to meet the stricter ECA-equivalent emission ratio on every crossing, and the wash-water system, the overboard valves and the shell penetration downstream of them deserve a place on the docking specification. Ships without scrubbers simply burn compliant fuel, so the piping question belongs to the scrubber fleet alone.

France applies port state control under the Paris MoU, so ships calling at Marseille-Fos fall under the same risk-based targeting as those at any northern European port, and the EU ETS (since 2024) and FuelEU Maritime (since 2025) apply to calls here as at any EU port. Marseille is also a shipping headquarters city: the CMA CGM group has its head office here, and the ferry operators running the Corsica, Sardinia and North Africa routes work from the port. For tankers, vetting is the other driver. Charterers and oil-major vetting often ask for CAP on tankers over about 15 years, and the gauging for it can be split between a Fos call and a docking. Tankers at Lavéra and Fos fall under the ESP Code, with IACS UR Z10.4 for double-hull oil tankers and Z10.3 for chemical tankers setting the gauging extent at each renewal survey.

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

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

The team flies into Marseille Provence Airport at Marignane, which sits between the city basins and Fos, so both sides of the port are reached by road. The ship's agent arranges ISPS gate passes for the terminals and the repair yard, and launch boats for ships at the Fos anchorage; launches are weather-dependent when the mistral blows. France is in the Schengen area, so each technician travels on a Schengen visa obtained in India before departure. For a Forme 10 docking we apply as soon as the yard slot is confirmed; for anchored tankers we plan around the berth line-up and keep the flight flexible.

• 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.

In this section