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).
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.
Ryan J. K. Kim, General Manager, Nippon Paint Marine(South Korea), furthered that while FASTAR was applied to reduce biofouling and reduced drydock time and improve application times, NEOGUARD was also applied to protect the coating from mechanical damage.
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.