Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging for Ships at the Port of Taranto

Inspection services for ships at Taranto

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

Where gauging happens in Taranto: industrial quays, jetties and the Gulf

Almost every Taranto job is done alongside at an industrial or terminal berth. The steelworks quays work to their own rules on dust, hot work and cargo handling, so the agent arranges access and a safety induction first, and holds can be entered only once discharge is complete and the stevedores have left the space. Residual ore dust and moisture on frames and tank tops make surface preparation part of the plan: readings on coated or scaled steel are only as good as the cleaning behind them, and we agree with the ship's crew who prepares which locations before the team arrives.

Docking is not a strong point of the port for commercial ships. The naval arsenal in the Mar Piccolo is a military facility and is not where merchant ships are normally gauged or repaired, so owners with a ship loading at Taranto generally book their drydock at a yard elsewhere in Italy, in Greece, in Malta or on the Croatian coast. A thickness survey alongside in Taranto, carried out before the ship sails, lets the chosen yard plan steel renewal from measured figures instead of assumptions, and the same readings then serve as the baseline against which the yard's own gauging is compared.

• Steelworks quays — hold frames, tank top and lower hopper plating on ore and coal carriers once discharge is complete and the holds are cleared
• Refinery jetties — main deck, deck piping and accessible ballast tanks on product tankers, under the terminal's strict ignition-source rules
• Container terminal quays — hatch covers, cross-deck structure and scrubber overboard piping on feeder and larger container ships during cargo work
• Multipurpose and project cargo quays — gauging of general cargo ships and heavy-lift vessels between loading windows
• Anchorage in the Gulf of Taranto — owner's condition gauging on ships waiting for a berth or laid up, reached by a launch the agent books

Port state control, regulation and the steel trade in Taranto

Ships calling at Taranto are boarded for port state control by the Italian Coast Guard, working through the harbour master (Capitaneria di Porto) under the Paris MoU. Targeting follows the ship risk profile, so an older bulk carrier with a poor inspection history is likelier to be boarded, and structural deficiencies such as wasted hold frames or holed tank tops are among the findings that can lead to detention. Bulk carriers fall under the ESP regime from their first renewal survey, and the extensive gauging required at the later special surveys makes a prior measured baseline valuable. Older ships in the ore and coal trades often reach this point with real wastage in the holds.

Wider rules add reasons to know the steel state of a ship. The EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires ships calling at EU ports to carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials, and a ship nearing the end of its commercial life will be assessed for sale or recycling against its gauging record. EU ETS now covers shipping emissions and FuelEU Maritime applies to fuel use, which bears on the economics of keeping older handysize and panamax bulkers in service. Finally, the steel plant's own supply chain is exposed to freight and charter terms, so charterers acting for the mills tend to ask about structural condition before accepting tonnage.

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

A gauging job at Taranto 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.

Taranto-Grottaglie Airport is the nearest airport but has limited services, so teams usually fly into Bari or Brindisi and continue by road. Port access for the steelworks quays, refinery jetties and container terminal is arranged by the ship's agent, with ISPS passes and any terminal induction booked ahead. Our technicians are Indian nationals and travel on Schengen visas, whose lead time depends on the consulate, so we begin the application as soon as the call is firm and fix flights once the ship's berth date is confirmed.

• 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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