The world’s largest containership by TEU-carrying capacity has floated out with Nippon Paint Marine antifouling and anti-corrosion systems protecting the vessel’s 400m long hull.

When delivered, the 24,000TEU class Ever Alot will be the first of four new A-Class box ships set to join the Evergreen fleet from China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard.

Nippon Paint Marine is supplying coating systems to all four of the 24,000 TEU class sisterships Evergreen has entrusted to Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard, in an extensive scope of supply that includes the ever-popular A-LF Sea antifouling system.

Commenting on the decision to apply the A-LF Sea system, Steven Chang, Director of Nippon Paint Marine (Taiwan), said: “With systems and components capable of reducing the operational impact on the marine environment being a key design requirement, the low friction A-LF Sea 150 was considered the only system capable of contributing to the owner’s strict environmental sustainability goals.”

Chang furthered: “The super-efficient copper-silyl-acrylate antifouling is proven to have good fuel savings effect, largely through the use of our patented hydrophilic hydrogel technology. This has been verified to reduce frictional resistance considerably, compared to other antifouling paints.”

During the construction of the Ever Alot, A-LF Sea 150 was applied to the hull. In total, Nippon Paint Marine supplied 20 different types of paint for myriad areas of the vessel. In addition to the antifouling system, the company also provided E-Marine anti-corrosion coatings for the hull, cargo holds and decks, and a NOA 60 HS system for the ships’ ballast tanks.

Gerald Mao, Senior Director, Nippon Paint Marine (Shanghai): said: “While we have a substantial number of coating references with Evergreen, the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard is a relatively new customer for us. We completed our first project with the yard just over a year ago, so we are very pleased the yard is using our coatings for this prestigious project. We have ramped up production at our factories in Zhang Jia Gang and Okayama to meet increasing demand for A-LF Sea.”

South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries is also building three 24,000TEU class vessels with A LF-Sea fouling protection, one of these vessels was delivered in 2021. Ever Arm and Ever Art will be delivered later this year.

Since market introduction in 2013, more than 3,600 ships of all types have benefitted from an A-LF Sea application.