Polaris Shipping, one of South Korea’s largest bulk carrier operators, has specified Nippon Paint Marine hull and hold coatings for a trio of Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOC), according to the company's release.
Two of the 250,000dwt vessels – Stellar Young and Stellar Way – were applied with the company’s NEOGUARD and FASTAR coatings in July at Keppel Subic Shipyard, Inc. and Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, respectively. Sistership Stellar Venture is scheduled to receive the same application in September, at China's Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Marine Services Co., Ltd. (DSIC).
A NEOGUARD 100 GF (glass flake) abrasion resistant, anticorrosive system, known for its mechanical strength, was selected to protect topsides and boottops. The company’s new nano domain technology antifouling FASTAR I has also been specified for boottops, in addition to the vessels’ flat bottom. The hydrogel-containing version of the antifouling, FASTAR XI, was selected for the vertical sides to reduce fuel consumption by as much as 8%.
Although FASTAR has yet to be fully benchmarked given the coating’s recent introduction, performance indicators suggest the coating could succeed Nippon Paint Marine’s popular LF-Sea range as the commercial maritime industry’s antifouling of choice.
Established in 2004, Seoul-based Polaris Shipping operates a fleet of 16 VLOCs, 13 cape size bulkers, 1 VLCC and 2 LR2 tankers.
Since its official market entry in January 2021, Nippon Paint Marine has applied the FASTAR technology to 155 vessels as of May 2022.
Nippon Paint Marine has newly secured three M&R projects from Polaris Shipping this time and will try to further expand the technology globally in the coming future.
Nippon Paint Marine business is a subsidiary of Nippon Paint Holdings, Asia’s foremost paint supplier and the world’s fourth largest coatings company.
With a global manufacturing and distribution network Nippon Paint Marine has been producing marine coatings since the 1880s and is widely regarded as a pioneer in the development hull protection and antifouling paints.
In the 1990s, the organisation developed and launched Ecoloflex, the world’s first self-polishing (SPC) tin-free antifouling paint. The first low-friction LF-Sea series followed in 2008 and in 2017 the organisation introduced Aquaterras, the world’s first biocide-free antifouling paint. In 2021, Nippon Paint Marine introduced FASTAR the industry’s first antifouling coating with a nano resin structure.
Nippon Paint Marine is accredited to ISO 14001 environmental standards and manufacturers coatings products in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals.