By
Alex Smith |
Marine coating specialist Nippon Paint Marine will provide its A-LF-Sea hull coating for 13 cruise ships operating under the brands of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, after signing a long-term supply contract with the cruise company.
The agreement will see Nippon Paint Marine apply its low-friction SPC antifouling coating, A-LF-Sea, to six Oceania Cruises vessels, five Regent Seven Seas Cruises vessels and two Norwegian Cruise Line ships, Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Dawn. A-LF-Sea has already been applied in 11 drydocks, with three more ships, Marina, Nautica and Norwegian Epic, scheduled for drydocks later in 2020.
“Due to the impressive performance of A-LF-Sea in the past, we decided to broaden the scope of supply to half the Norwegian fleet with a more formal, long-term agreement,” said Carlo Paiella, vice president of technical operations for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. “Nippon’s technical service and worldwide supply capabilities complement the excellent fuel-saving performance we have seen from this low-friction paint. The use of A-LF-Sea has helped towards our ships meeting the very stringent emissions reduction targets we have set.”
The hull coating system recently won the 2020 Japanese government award for Global Warming Prevention Activity, with the panel finding that the coating reduced drag, and consequently resulted in lower fuel consumption.
“We are proud that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has selected Nippon Paint Marine as its preferred coatings supplier for these vessels,” said John Drew, director of Nippon Paint Marine Europe. “Norwegian’s requirements are understandably extremely demanding but thanks to its forward planning, together with the reliability and performance of this coating, these vessels will benefit from greater fuel and operational efficiencies.”
Nippon Paint Marine is also working with Norwegian on the testing of its biocide-free hull coating Aquaterras. A test patch has been applied to an undisclosed cruise ship and results are being benchmarked against a conventional biocide-coating.
“Like other cruise lines, Norwegian also recognises that Aquaterras is a hugely significant breakthrough in the antifouling market, providing similar levels of performance to those systems containing biocides, such as cuprous oxide,” said Drew.