Ship Thickness Gauging and Hull Inspection in Palermo

Inspection services for ships at Palermo

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

Where gauging happens in the port of Palermo

Ship repair in Palermo centres on the Fincantieri yard, whose drydocks give full access to the bottom shell, sea chests, rudder and stern areas and to double-bottom tanks once they are cleaned and certified gas-free. During a docking the gauging team works to the yard programme: readings are taken before blasting so that original surfaces are measured, and the results feed the steel renewal decisions that the owner and the surveyor make in the first days of the stay, when the yard's steel gangs are being allocated. After undocking, ships often stay at the repair quays to finish refit work, which gives time to re-gauge renewed areas.

Outside the yard, gauging is done at the ferry and cruise berths. The passenger quays handle the overnight ro-pax ships, ro-ro cargo services and the cruise programme, and access is by ISPS pass through the agent. Termini Imerese, east along the coast and part of the same port system, handles ro-ro and general cargo, and Trapani serves the western islands; both can be added to a Palermo mobilisation when an owner has ships in more than one Sicilian port in the same week.

• Fincantieri Palermo shipyard — drydock gauging of bottom shell, sea chests, stern structure and double-bottom tanks during repair, refit and conversion projects
• Repair quays of the Fincantieri yard — afloat gauging of tanks, decks and internal structure while ships complete refit work after undocking
• Ro-pax ferry berths — overnight ferries in from the mainland, alongside until the evening, with vehicle decks, ramps and ballast tanks open for gauging
• Stazione Marittima cruise berths — turnaround-day gauging of exhaust gas cleaning piping, void spaces and items carried over from the previous survey
• Termini Imerese — ro-ro and general cargo ships in the same port system east of Palermo, combined with Palermo work in a single mobilisation
• Trapani — ferries and fast craft serving the Egadi Islands and Pantelleria, and cargo ships at the western end of the port system

Port state control, emissions and the Sicilian ferry market

Palermo's port state control inspections follow the Paris MoU system used throughout Italy. Ferries and fast craft on scheduled Sicilian routes face an additional layer, the EU's dedicated inspection regime for passenger ships in regular service, so structural deficiencies on a Palermo ferry tend to surface quickly. From 1 May 2025, when the Mediterranean SOx ECA entered into force, the Tyrrhenian and the Sicily Channel became 0.10% sulphur waters for any ship without an equivalent exhaust gas cleaning system. Ro-pax ships and cruise ships fitted with scrubbers therefore run them on every crossing, so their wash-water and overboard piping sees more running hours and deserves regular wall-thickness checks.

Sicily depends on its sea links, and some of the ships serving them are older tonnage working intensive schedules. For their owners the questions are practical: whether the next renewal survey can be passed with planned steel work, whether a conversion or lengthening is worth doing, or whether the ship should be sold. EU ETS since 2024 and FuelEU Maritime since 2025 add a carbon dimension to those questions for the larger ships. Gauging records taken in Palermo, where the yard and the trading pattern are both at hand, are the factual starting point for each of those decisions.

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

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

Palermo Falcone Borsellino Airport, west of the city, has domestic and European connections, with long-haul arrivals routed through Rome or Milan. The shipyard and the passenger quays are both inside the port, so equipment moves easily between a docked ship and a ferry alongside. The ship's agent or the yard arranges ISPS access and site induction. The team flies in from India on Schengen visas. Docking and conversion slots at the yard are normally fixed well ahead, which leaves time for visas, while ferry layover work needs dates confirmed as soon as the operator's schedule is known.

• 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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