Marine coatings company Nippon Paint Marine says that 2,557 vessels using its hull coatings technologies have been registered on the RightShip platform, which assesses contributions by technology and innovation to deliver a safer and more sustainable shipping industry.
Customer vessels on the platform are using Nippon Paint Marine hull coatings, including its biocide-free Aquaterras, Fastar and A-LF Sea. Vessels included in the database that have been coated using Nippon Paint Marine systems include an 81,000 dwt bulk carrier coated with Fastar XI. The self-polishing and self-smoothing antifouling paint uses nanodomain technology to deliver excellent antifouling performance, while minimising impact on the marine environment. A 2.5% reduction in required propulsion power across the vessel’s operating profile delivered by Fastar, helped to improve the vessel’s GHG rating from C to B+, whilst supporting improved cost efficiencies.
The platform has confirmed that a 324,000 dwt ore carrier realised a reduction in required propulsion power of 5.94% following the application of Fastar XI, supporting the vessel’s A+ GHG rating. These results are thought to prove that Nippon Paint Marine hull coating solutions deliver measurable efficiency gains across a range of vessel types and operating profiles for shipowners and operators that want to secure predictable and verifiable outcomes.
Owners and operators continue to emphasise emissions performance and sustainability, transparent and reliable data have a significant role to play in decisions and choices about investments in hull coatings. As a result, Nippon Paint Marine has worked to transform how it supports its customers, expanding its global technical support network and extending its data and performance analysis capacity. It has continued to invest in research and development for sustainable technologies and to improve collaboration between teams across the business to improve performance.
Nippon Paint Marine’s work with customers has been fundamental to improving data gathering and performance validation. Wah Kwong Maritime has been a Nippon Paint Marine customer for 20 years. Since developing a more collaborative approach to data driven insight and validation, the relationship has deepened in the last two years. Wah Kwong Maritime now has five vessels using Nippon Paint Marine hull coatings on the RightShip platform.
Wah Kwong Maritime believes that specifying Nippon Paint Marine across its fleet has delivered clear operational and environmental benefits. Fastar maintained hull efficiency longer, which directly reduced fuel consumption and helped to improve the company’s RightShip GHG rating.
Felicia Teoh, Marketing Division, Nippon Paint Marine, said: “The maritime industry is moving towards a lower emission future. It is a challenge we discuss frequently with our customers and is an important focus for our research and development teams. Working with our partners to gather data provides evidence for the efficacy of our coatings and means we can help shipowners deliver more sustainable operations.”
Nippon Paint Marine‘s strategic partnership with RightShip’s Zero Harm Innovations Programme allows the business to drive forward its commitment to innovation in decarbonisation and vessel efficiency and to promote transparent sustainability reporting in the maritime industry. Nippon Paint Marine’s low-friction and sustainable hull coatings are said to have helped customer vessels to achieve more than 45m tonnes CO2e savings since their introduction.
Image: Fastar coated vessel (source: Nippon Paint Marine)
