Ship Thickness Measurement at the Head of Ranfjorden: Mo i Rana's Ore, Steel and Bulk Trade

Inspection services for ships at Mo i Rana

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

Where a ship can be gauged in Mo i Rana

Gauging in Mo i Rana is done alongside the industrial quays, during cargo operations or while a ship waits for cargo, and the ore berth and the general cargo quays each offer a different window. A bulk carrier arriving in ballast to load ore has clean, empty holds, and if loading is held up by rail deliveries or weather the holds can be measured before the first cargo goes in. A ship discharging raw materials offers the reverse: holds become available once the last grab load is out and the tank top has been swept.

Mo i Rana has no dry dock for seagoing cargo ships, so dockings take place at yards elsewhere on the Norwegian coast, in the Baltic or further afield, as the owner chooses. Ships that call repeatedly on contract trades give an owner the chance to spread a renewal-survey gauging programme over several calls, with the readings collected into one report for the docking yard. Ballast tank work needs more preparation than hold work, because the tanks must be emptied, ventilated and tested safe for entry, and that is easier to arrange on a ship that is waiting than on one loading against the clock.

• Ore loading berth — cargo-hold, hopper and topside plating gauged on bulk carriers that arrive in ballast, before loading begins.
• Industrial park general cargo quays — tank-top, double-bottom and tween-deck readings on multipurpose ships loading steel and alloys.
• Raw-material discharge berths — hold frames and tank tops measured after discharge, where grabs and abrasive cargo leave damage.
• Hatch covers and coamings at any berth — panel, coaming and drain-channel gauging while a ship waits for cargo.
• Ships waiting alongside for rail cargo — ballast tank and engine-room piping gauging when the stay allows tanks to be prepared.

Bulk trades, port state control and dry cargo at Mo i Rana

Foreign ships at Mo i Rana come under Paris MoU port state control, which the Norwegian Maritime Authority carries out. Bulk carriers older than twelve years fall into the Paris MoU's expanded-inspection category, and their holds, hatch covers and ballast tanks are exactly what an inspector looks at closely. A ship whose owner holds recent thickness readings for those areas is better placed to answer questions about wasted frames and coamings before they turn into deficiencies, and the same readings feed the Enhanced Survey Programme file that every bulk carrier keeps.

Iron ore concentrate is one of the cargoes the IMSBC Code lists as able to liquefy if its moisture content is too high, which is one reason masters and shippers here care so much about keeping holds dry. Seawater entering through a corroded coaming or a distorted cover panel is a cargo problem as well as a structural one. Norway also takes part in the EU emissions trading system through the EEA Agreement, so emissions on voyages to and from Mo i Rana are now accounted for, and owners deciding whether an older bulk carrier deserves further investment often begin with a fresh set of thickness readings.

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

A gauging job at Mo i Rana 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.

Mo i Rana has its own regional airport with domestic connections, and Bodø and Trondheim, with wider flight networks, are within reach by road or by rail on the Nordland Line, which runs through the town. Access to the industrial quays is controlled, and the ship's agent registers the team with the port and the terminal operator in advance. Norway belongs to the Schengen area, so the technicians travel from India on Schengen visas, and the visa timeline is set against the ship's expected loading date as soon as the charter is fixed.

• 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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