Thickness Measurement at the Port of Varberg for Timber and Forest-Product Carriers

Inspection services for ships at Varberg

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

Gauging at the Varberg timber quays and where ships dock

Varberg has no drydock, so all gauging here is done alongside at the cargo quays. The practical window is set by the loading plan: holds can be measured before stowage begins or in any hold the stevedores have not yet started, and hatch covers and coamings are best reached while the covers are open and the ship is not yet loading that hatch. Ballast tanks are emptied during loading, but they need ventilation and gas measurement before anyone goes in, so tank work is only realistic if the ship starts de-ballasting early or stays alongside after completing cargo.

For docking, ships calling at Varberg go wherever their owners have a yard arrangement, often in Denmark, Poland, the Baltic states, the Netherlands or Germany. A Varberg call shortly before a docking is a good time to firm up the steel list, because the holds are empty on arrival and the yard can be sent a list based on fresh readings. Gothenburg is a short drive north if a ship shifts there for repairs.

• Timber berths along the main quay — tank-top, hold-frame and hold-bulkhead gauging before loading starts, on general cargo and open-hatch ships.
• Hatch covers and coamings at the berth — top-plate, coaming and cleat-area readings taken while covers are open between loading sequences.
• Deck cargo areas — main-deck plating, lashing points and stanchion sockets measured before timber is stowed on deck.
• New Farehamnen forestry section — the same work as the harbour's new berths come into use, with access confirmed by the agent.
• Ships lying idle at the quay between liftings — owner's condition or pre-purchase gauging with time to open ballast tanks safely.
• The ship's next docking yard — Varberg readings carried forward on the TM plan, with the team travelling on to complete renewal-survey gauging.

Port state control and the rules that bear on timber ships

Port state control in Varberg is the responsibility of the Swedish Transport Agency, working under the Paris MoU, and the small general cargo ships that dominate the timber trade are a regular target because many of them are older and change owners and flags frequently. Hatch covers, their securing devices and the coamings beneath them are a familiar source of structural deficiencies on such ships, so documented thickness readings help an owner show the surveyor and the inspector that the steel is sound. Ships carrying timber on deck must also meet the IMO Code of Safe Practice for Ships Carrying Timber Deck Cargoes, which puts weight on deck strength, lashing arrangements and the fittings that hold them.

European rules reach these ships unevenly. Ships of 500 gross tonnage and above calling at EU ports carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, which affects many timber ships, but the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime apply only from 5,000 gross tonnage, so a good part of the small timber fleet sits outside them. That leaves the commercial pressure from charterers and the class survey cycle as the main drivers of gauging. Varberg itself is ice-free, but ships trading timber from the Gulf of Bothnia in winter need their ice belt in good order, and owners often ask for it to be gauged alongside the holds.

Ships trading to Varberg 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 Varberg

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

Göteborg Landvetter Airport is the nearest international airport, and Varberg is reached from there by road or by rail on the West Coast Line, which also runs south towards Copenhagen Airport for teams arriving that way. The harbour is an ISPS-controlled facility, so the ship's agent arranges gate access for the named technicians and confirms the berth. The team travels from India on Schengen visas; because timber liftings are usually booked some way ahead, there is normally enough time to complete visa formalities before the ship's arrival date.

• 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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