Thickness Measurement for Bulk, Container and Tanker Calls at the Port of Pori

Inspection services for ships at Pori

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

Gauging locations at Mäntyluoto, Tahkoluoto and beyond

Bulk carriers at Tahkoluoto are measured as discharge proceeds. Once a hold is emptied and the grabs move on, the team works the lower hopper, the frames and the tank top in that hold before moving to the next, while topside and ballast tanks that the crew has prepared are entered between cargo stages. On tankers and gas carriers at the liquid berths, the work is limited to what the terminal and the ship's permit system allow during transfer: deck plating, piping exteriors, void spaces and the engine room. Feeders and multipurpose ships at Mäntyluoto offer deck, hatch-cover and crane-pedestal work, along with scrubber pipework, during their stay.

For the dock period, ships trading to Pori go elsewhere. The shipyard at Rauma, a short way down the coast, and Turku Repair Yard at Naantali are the nearest Finnish options, and many owners dock in Poland, the Baltic states or further afield. Gauging at Pori before the ship sails gives whichever yard is chosen a measured steel list, and lets the class surveyor at the yard start from readings that only need verifying. Where an owner wants the whole programme finished in the dock, our team can travel on to the yard and complete it there.

• Tahkoluoto dry bulk berths — hold frames, hopper plating and tank tops on bulk carriers, hold by hold as discharge progresses
• Tahkoluoto liquid and LNG berths — deck, piping and void-space gauging on tankers and small gas carriers within terminal rules
• Mäntyluoto container and general cargo quays — deck plating, hatch covers and scrubber lines on feeders and multipurpose ships
• Mäntyluoto project cargo berths — crane pedestals, deck strengthening and tween decks on heavy-lift ships waiting for cargo
• Roads anchorage off the harbours — ships waiting for a berth, reached by launch when ice and sea state allow
• Nearest docking yards at Rauma and Naantali — where the steel list measured at Pori is checked with the ship dry

Inspection regime and trade drivers on the Pori coast

Traficom, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, carries out port state control at Pori under the Paris MoU, and bulk carriers are among the ship types whose structural condition draws particular attention on board. Bulk carriers and tankers trading here fall under the Enhanced Survey Programme, so their intermediate and renewal surveys carry mandatory thickness measurement and close-up survey that widen with age. Ice-classed bulk tonnage often stays on Baltic contracts for decades, and by the third and fourth renewal surveys the gauging extent can be considerable, which is why owners like to know the figures before the ship reaches the dock. Voyages linking Pori with other EU ports count in full under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime, and the EU Ship Recycling Regulation expects every ship above its tonnage threshold to carry a current Inventory of Hazardous Materials.

The cargo matters too. Mineral concentrates are often carried damp, and residues left in holds that are not cleaned and dried between voyages can attack tank tops, hopper plating and frame brackets, so wastage there may outpace what the ship's age would suggest. Chemicals and fuels arriving at the liquid berths bring chemical tankers under IACS UR Z10.3, with CAP ratings sometimes requested by charterers of older ships. In winter, the ice class decides whether a ship can call at all once the restrictions tighten, and readings from the ice belt and bow give the owner the measured basis for keeping a ship on a winter contract.

Ships trading to Pori 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 Pori

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

International arrivals are usually through Helsinki-Vantaa, followed by a road journey to the west coast; Pori Airport may suit some itineraries. The ship's agent requests ISPS access for Mäntyluoto or Tahkoluoto and books a launch when the ship is at anchor, and the LNG terminal adds its own safety induction. Finland is in the Schengen area, so technicians coming from India need a Schengen visa, and we set travel dates against the confirmed berth and the consular timetable together.

• 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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