Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging for Ships at the Port of Salerno

Inspection services for ships at Salerno

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

Where thickness gauging can be carried out at Salerno

Salerno is a commercial port, so gauging is mostly done alongside. Each ship's call is short, and the programme has to fit between discharge and loading, between passenger disembarkation and boarding, or inside a planned lay-up period. In practice that means choosing a handful of accessible spaces per visit: a ramp and its supporting structure, a car deck section, a few ballast tanks the crew can ventilate, or the hatch coamings on a container ship. Where the owner wants more, the work is spread across several calls and compiled into a single set of results.

Ships that need a full docking survey typically leave Salerno for a yard with the right drydock, and Naples, only a short voyage away, is the most common destination, followed by Palermo. Pre-docking readings at Salerno give the superintendent a working steel estimate to put into the yard specification before the ship sails. Some passenger craft and workboats are hauled out at smaller yards on the coast, and where an owner has ships at both Salerno and neighbouring ports, a single mobilisation by road can cover them.

• Container terminal berths — hatch coaming, cell guide and ballast tank gauging on feeder and short-sea container ships during the cargo stop
• Ro-ro and trailer berths — ramp, stern door and car deck structure gauged on ships that return to Salerno on weekly schedules
• Vehicle carrier berths — hoistable deck, side shell and tank readings on car carriers after discharge
• Passenger quay and ferry berths — cruise ships and coastal ferries gauged during turnaround, or in lay-up outside the summer season
• Roads in the gulf — owner's condition and pre-purchase gauging on ships at anchor, using a launch arranged through the agent
• Naples and Castellammare di Stabia — neighbouring ports and repair yards, often joined to a Salerno visit in the same mobilisation

Port state control, rolling-cargo rules and the Campania trades

Salerno follows the Paris MoU port state control system used across Italy, with inspections carried out by the Guardia Costiera. Ro-ro cargo ships and car carriers often show structural damage in the places that matter to inspectors: ramps, internal decks and lashing points are worn by constant vehicle movement, and watertight doors and hoistable decks need to be sound. Ferries and passenger craft in scheduled service are covered by the EU's additional inspection regime, which applies to the Amalfi Coast and island services as well as to the long-haul lines.

European rules shape the decisions owners make here. The Ship Recycling Regulation asks for an Inventory of Hazardous Materials on ships calling at EU ports, and many owners complete it alongside a major survey. EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime affect the bigger ro-ro and container ships calling at Salerno, which pushes owners of older vessels to assess the remaining life of their steel against alternatives. Measured thickness records, taken during short stops in a busy commercial port, are a practical basis for that assessment.

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

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

Naples International Airport is the nearest main gateway and Salerno is reached from it by road or by rail, while Rome Fiumicino adds long-haul options. The ship's agent arranges ISPS passes for the commercial and passenger berths and a launch for ships at anchor. The inspection team travels from India and needs Schengen visas, so owners should confirm dates with enough lead time; ro-ro schedules repeat predictably, which usually makes that easier than for one-off calls.

• 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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