Cargo Hold Cleaning
Holds cleaned, dried and presented to the grade your next fixture requires, with our own teams at the berth.
A failed hold inspection stops a loading operation and puts the vessel off hire while the charterer looks for someone to fix it. Marine Surveys Africa cleans cargo holds to the grade the next cargo requires, and presents them for inspection with the vessel still on schedule.
We work to the recognised cleanliness standards: shovel clean, normal clean, grain clean and hospital clean. The grade you need depends on what came out and what goes in, and getting that judgement wrong is expensive in both directions. Cleaning to hospital clean when grain clean would have passed wastes a day; presenting a grain clean hold for a cargo that needed better fails the inspection.
Our crews carry their own equipment to the berth. That matters across the ports we cover, where hiring local plant at short notice is often the constraint that decides whether a vessel sails on time.
Applies to
- Bulk carriers, handysize through panamax
- General cargo and multipurpose vessels
- Grain, rice and agricultural cargoes
- Cocoa, coffee and sensitive foodstuffs
- Bauxite, alumina, clinker and cement
- Fertiliser, sulphur and mineral concentrates
- Timber, logs and sawn wood
How we work
The same method at every port, so the report reads the same from one call to the next.
- 01
Pre-cleaning inspection
We attend on arrival, inspect each hold, and confirm the grade achievable against the previous cargo and the time available before loading.
- 02
Residue removal
Previous cargo residues, loose rust scale and debris removed from tank tops, hoppers, frames, ladders and bilge wells.
- 03
Washing and rinsing
Fresh or sea water washing as the cargo requires, with chemical treatment where the previous cargo leaves staining or odour.
- 04
Drying and bilge preparation
Holds dried, bilge wells cleaned and tested, and bilge covers and strum boxes checked before presentation.
- 05
Presentation for inspection
Holds presented to the surveyor or the charterer's representative, with a written report and photographs covering each hold.
Cargo Hold Cleaning port by port
This service is available across all 38 of our ports. The ports below have a dedicated page covering what is specific to working there.
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Dakar
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Abidjan
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Takoradi
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Tema
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Lome
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Lagos
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Douala
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Kribi
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Owendo
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Pointe Noire
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Luanda
- Cargo Hold Cleaning at Durban
Need cargo hold cleaning?
Tell us the vessel, the port and the date. We reply within two hours, any time of day.