Turnkey Cargo Hold Cleaning & Active-Transit Turnaround
Case Study: Project 02
CLIENT
Leading Global Fleet Operator
DURATION
11 Active Execution Days (Completed over a continuous transit from Seoul to Singapore.)
The Commercial Challenge
A tier-one bulk carrier required a comprehensive cargo hold turnaround during active transit to secure immediate commercial readiness. The objective was to execute high-reach chemical cleaning, hard-rust removal, and high-pressure (HP) washing entirely underway, ensuring the asset was cleared without extending the vessel's planned operational downtime.
OPERATIONAL PRECISION
Execution and technical standards
OPERATIONAL PRECISION
Execution and technical standards
Aquanav deployed a specialized 5-man rope access team to execute the operations continuously while the vessel remained in service. By seamlessly adapting operations around the vessel's active transit from December 13 to December 24, 2025, the team ensured zero off-hire disruption to the client's commercial operations.
Standard Benchmarks
To ensure compliant surface preparation prior to loading, the execution strictly adhered to the following procedural benchmarks:
Executed HP Washing for removal of cargo residues and tide marks from high-reach areas across the cargo holds.
Performed mechanical derusting of lower hopper hard rust using portable tools, acting as a parallel operation driven by the ship's crew to maintain forward momentum.
Chemical Application & Verification
The execution utilized specialized chemical application and high-pressure washing systems to guarantee commercial compliance.
Material Application: The team utilized a Panamax applicator to deploy a precise 50-50 dilution ratio of Navadan Clean hold chemical mixed with Aquatuff directly onto the dry, stained surfaces.
Targeted Washing: High-Pressure (HP) freshwater washing of stains and applied chemicals was executed, commencing from the under-deck areas.
Final Verification: The project mandated rigorous validation for commercial handover. Cargo holds 1, 2, 3, and 4 underwent high-pressure washing and passed strict white-glove testing carried out entirely by the team. Furthermore, the high-reach areas of holds 5 and 6 successfully passed HP washing and white-glove testing executed by Aquanav’s trained technicians.
Hold inspection for load readiness: The cargo holds were inspected by the shipper’s appointed surveyor prior loading grain at Dumai, Indonesia and all holds passed for loading without any remarks.
The Aquanav Advantage
Innovation
For in-transit hold cleaning
Traditional staging inside massive cargo holds creates massive commercial delays and drives up staging costs. To maintain the aggressive project turnaround, Aquanav successfully deployed dynamic IRATA Certified rope access teams.
This deployment entirely eliminated the need for traditional staging, vastly accelerating access to high-reach under-deck areas for HP washing and chemical application. This agile methodology not only ensured immediate commercial readiness upon arrival in Singapore, but also saved significant costs in off-hire downtime (at least 2-3 days) and shore cleaning gang mobilization, if the hold cleaning had to be done ashore.
The savings are much more magnified in other parts of the world- US, Latin America, Black Sea ports where the cleaning costs are much higher, for which our in-transit hold cleaning solution is perfectly tailored for the vessel owner’s commercial needs.