Nippon Paint Marine joins RightShip Zero Harm Innovation Partners program to improve marine safety and sustainability

June 18, 2025

From left to right: Ajinkya Kadam, Director at RightShip; Gladys Goh, President of Nippon Paint Marine; and Bill Phua, Managing Director of Nippon Paint Marine Singapore. Advancing a partnership committed to a safer and more sustainable maritime industry credit:Nippon Paint Marine

Ongoing collaboration between Nippon Paint Marine and RightShip as part of the program will help to drive maritime decarbonisation through data sharing and validation.

Marine coatings leader Nippon Paint Marine announced it has reached agreement with RightShip to join its Zero Harm Innovation Partners Program as a strategic partner and drive forward a shared commitment to innovation in decarbonisation and vessel efficiency, and to promote transparent ESG reporting in the maritime industry.

Nippon Paint Marine has submitted its low-friction hull coating products AQUATERRAS, FASTAR and A-LF-Sea for review by RightShip, which assessed their potential to support vessel emissions reduction.

The agreement between Nippon Paint Marine and RightShip will include the sharing and validation of data covering coating and operational performance areas, such as hull roughness and emissions reduction. As the shipping industry strives for net-zero around 2050, collaboration across the sector will be important for enabling the adoption of effective innovation.

Pitctured left to right: Ajinkya Kadam, Director at RightShip, exchanging a handshake with Gladys Goh, President of Nippon Paint Marine

Included in the agreement are three of Nippon Paint Marine’s leading hull coatings, which each provide fuel savings of more than 14% compared with market average conventional hull coatings and help to cut emissions. AQUATERRAS features patented polymer technology and hydrophilic and hydrophobic micro-domain structures to deliver biocide free fouling protection. FASTAR and A-LF-Sea both feature Nippon Paint Marine’s patented HydroSmoothXT™ technology, a hydrogel which traps water against the hull surface to reduce friction, energy use and emissions.

Gladys Goh, President of Nippon Paint Marine, commented, “Delivering the shipping industry’s objective of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 sustainably will require a collaborative effort across the sector. Innovation doesn’t happen overnight. Our R&D teams have invested many decades to develop and deliver effective solutions for our customers. With the right information available to them through programs that promote data transparency, shipowners can be confident of adopting new technologies that will move them quickly and effectively towards our industry’s goal.

“We are very proud to be working with RightShip to enable transparency in the sector and support shipowners on their journey towards a zero-harm maritime industry.”

Delivering hull coatings that reduce the environmental impact of operations while protecting the vessel is crucially important to achieving a sustainable, zero-harm maritime industry. Nippon Paint Marine continues to innovate coatings that can be tailored to the operational needs of the shipowner while ensuring environmental and operational performance to advance a safer and more sustainable maritime industry. Since launching its low-friction hull coatings, Nippon Paint Marine has helped customers’ vessels to achieve 45 million tonnes of CO2 emissions savings.