INTO NEW TERRITORIES

Over the past six months or so, Nippon Paint Marine has carried out some interesting projects applying coatings for new customers and in different markets.

For example, the company applied its biocide-free antifouling, AQUATERRAS, to a Wan Hai vessel at a shipyard in China for the first time last year. The container ship, Wan Hai 613, entered Zhou Shan Chang Hong Shipyard for a scheduled ship repair and maintenance drydocking, during which Nippon Paint Marine applied a full coating of the low-VOC AQUATERRAS coating, which was first released in 2021.

Other notable recent projects include the application of its FASTAR coating to 10 vessels in the Wan Hai fleet, continuing the company’s close working relationship with the Taiwanese container carrier.

In the second half of 2024, Nippon Paint Marine applied AQUATERRAS to the Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) car carrier Courageous Ace, the first time the Japanese shipping company had used this coating for its fleet. The vessel was coated with AQUATERRAS on its flat bottom, vertical bottom and boot top while in for a scheduled drydocking.

According to Gladys Goh, Nippon Paint Marine CEO: “The car carrier operates on multiple different routes in changing and challenging conditions, making AQUATERRAS the ideal hull coating to help maintain vessel efficiency. We were able to provide a long-standing customer with a coating that protects the marine environment and delivers significant energy and fuel savings in line with their own objectives for sustainable operations.”

Goh adds: “Our customers are coming to us to ask for hull coatings that reduce the harm their operations do to the environment, driven by regulation but also by their focus on conducting sustainable operations. While hull coatings are an often-overlooked clean technology, they can provide significant fuel savings, of up to 14.7% in the case of our AQUATERRAS range, that help vessel owners to meet sustainability goals across their fleets.”

Shipyard facilities
Nippon Paint Marine is also being called upon to meet the requirements of shipyard facilities. The company’s division in China recently supplied its epoxy anti-corrosive coating NOA 60HS to two of the largest floating docks in the world, a project that required over 2.5 million liters of coatings. The floating docks are currently under construction, with one delivery scheduled for June 2025 and the other for December 2025.

NOA 60HS is designed primarily for use in ballast tanks, cargo oil tanks and voids. It includes Nippon Paint Marine’s Self-Indicating Technology, which allows sprayers to judge coating thickness by colour in real time, helping to ensure accurate application even in low-light environments.

Nippon Paint Marine is now offering clients a consulting service to support the ongoing effectiveness of their hull coatings. Goh says: “Our consulting teams can help to tailor hull coatings to a vessel’s operational profile, supporting the optimisation of performance and providing an immediate and cost-competitive coatings solution to support compliance with decarbonisation regulations aimed at delivering net zero in or around 2050.”

Meanwhile, Nippon Paint Marine’s R&D team continues to develop technologies that build on the effectiveness of its coatings. Later this year, the company expects to release a further extension to its established FASTAR range, which combines nano domain technology with hydrogel, with the aim of delivering low environmental impact and significant fuel-saving performance. The hydrogel acts to trap a layer of water against the hull surface increasing smoothness, reducing friction between the hull and the water, and delivering significant fuel savings with a claimed average speed loss of just 1.2% in the first 60 months of operation. FASTAR has been applied to over 1,000 vessels worldwide since its introduction in 2021.