Thickness Gauging at Nordenham for Bulk, Offshore and Cable-Laying Vessels

Inspection services for ships at Nordenham

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

Gauging sites at the Nordenham terminals

Work at Nordenham is done afloat at the Rhenus Midgard berths in the city port and at Blexen. On bulk carriers, holds are gauged as they empty, with the crew preparing ballast tanks for entry while discharge continues. On offshore and cable vessels, the mobilisation period sets the window: the vessel's own permit-to-work system governs entry to tanks and voids, and gauging is slotted between equipment installation, cable loading and trials. Ro-ro ships at Blexen give shorter windows on their ramps and vehicle decks.

Nordenham has no merchant dry dock. Ships needing one generally cross to the floating docks in Bremerhaven or go to another North Sea yard, and readings taken at Nordenham feed straight into that docking. For owners with work on both sides of the Weser, one mobilisation can cover ships at Nordenham and Bremerhaven, since the ferry and the tunnel keep the transfer short.

• Blexen terminal bulk berths — hold, hopper and tank-top gauging on bulk carriers after discharge of construction materials, coal or concentrates.
• Blexen ro-ro berth — ramp, main-deck and tank-top readings on ro-ro ships during their call.
• City port quays — gauging on forest product and general cargo ships, and on vessels loading aircraft sections.
• Offshore and cable logistics berths — deck, tank, crane pedestal and seafastening foundation checks on cable and installation vessels during mobilisation.
• Monopile load-out quay — structural gauging and crack detection on heavy cargo ships and barges between monopile shipments.
• Bremerhaven floating docks across the river — the nearest docking option, with Nordenham readings supplied to the yard.

Offshore rules, port state control and EU measures at Nordenham

Nordenham is a German port under the Paris MoU, and inspections of foreign ships here are carried out by BG Verkehr's Ship Safety Division. Offshore construction and cable vessels are classed as special-purpose or offshore service ships, and their survey arrangements differ from those of tankers and bulk carriers: the ESP regime does not apply, but class still expects hull gauging at renewal surveys, and charterers in offshore wind often ask for evidence of structural condition, particularly around cranes, seafastening points and moon pools, before contracting a vessel for a season.

European climate rules are another driver. EU ETS has applied to large cargo and passenger ships trading to EU ports since 2024 and FuelEU Maritime since 2025, and wind farm developers increasingly write emissions expectations into their vessel contracts, so owners of older support and installation vessels face hard choices about whether to keep, convert or replace them. Thickness data gathered during a mobilisation at Nordenham gives the owner a factual base for that choice. Bulk carriers calling at Blexen, like every ship in an EU port, need an Inventory of Hazardous Materials, and ageing ships that discharge abrasive cargoes are the ones whose hold steel tends to run out first.

Ships trading to Nordenham 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 Nordenham

A gauging job at Nordenham 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.

Bremen Airport is the nearest airport with international connections, and Hamburg Airport the main alternative; from either, the team reaches Nordenham by road or rail, or comes over from Bremerhaven on the Weser ferry to Blexen. Access to the Rhenus Midgard terminals is ISPS-controlled and booked through the ship's agent, and offshore vessels may also require their own site induction. Technicians mobilised from India hold Schengen visas, so project start dates should reach us early enough for the applications to be processed.

• 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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