In the present study, some attempts have been made to investigate the effect of corrosion pits on the strength of hold frames of bulk carriers. Firstly, shapes of corrosion pits observed on the hold frames have been investigated in detail. It was shown that the shape of the corrosion pits is a circular cone and the ratio of the diameter to the depth is about S to 1. Secondly, a series of tensile tests has been conducted and it was pointed out that when there is pitting corrosion, the tensile strength decreases gradually and the total elongation decreases drastically as the thickness loss increases. Thirdly, a compression test has been performed and FE-Analysis has been carried out to simulate the experiment. The buckling behavior can be well simulated by elasto-plastic analysis when taking into account the shape and the position of the corrosion pits.