Nippon Paint Marine will apply its new antifouling system FASTAR® to COSCO’s fleet to provide high performance and improve drydock efficiency.
COSCO Shipping has recently announced that it will have its entire VLCCs fleet coated with FASTAR®, the new antifouling system developed by Nippon Paint Marine, once initial applications have been evaluated. FASTAR is a self-polishing, antifouling paint that includes a nano-domain resin structure designed to minimise the effects of seawater temperatures and vessel speeds on the performance of the coatings.
FASTAR will be applied also to the passenger ferry COSCO Star and the 56,000dwt bulk carrier Xin Liu Lin Hai: COSCO Star will dock at the COSCO Shanghai Dockyard in February for a FASTAR® XI application while the bulker is currently scheduled to be coated with FASTAR® I in May at the COSCO Guangzhou Dockyard.
“COSCO Shipping has a long history of applying Nippon Paint Marine antifouling to the hulls of its vessels as a way of improving propulsion efficiency and reducing emissions. Once the shipowner has verified the precise, predictable performance of FASTAR® on these two vessels, more vessels are expected to take advantage of this revolutionary coating system,” stated Jun Ye, the M & R Sales Director for Nippon Paint Marine in China. “With the current high freight rates, shipowners want to keep their vessels trading for as long as possible. FASTAR® antifouling not only provides next level performance but improves drydock efficiency, reducing significantly the time required in drydock for paint work.”
The shipowner has chosen the newly introduced antifouling to allow its vessels to meet the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) requirements.
“We were keen to evaluate and assess the feasibility of Nippon Paint’s next generation antifouling for possible VLCC application. The coating’s potential to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by up to 8% is attractive and seen as a viable way towards meeting EEXI requirements. We also anticipate reduced paint volumes and quick drying time will result in cost savings,” commented from COSCO Shipping.