Marine Coatings Market
August 2015 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 27
the environment,” said Gareth Prowse,
Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs
manager, Performance Coatings at
AkzoNobel. “This approach is at the
core of our product development ambi-
tions and our own Product Stewardship
initiatives such us the Priority Substance
program, an industry leading approach
to managing hazardous substances in our
products. As such we are well prepared to
manage any possible restriction on indi-
vidual substances.”
The BPR will affect the availability of
biocides for use in the antifouling coat-
ings industry. “We expect that the core
biocides used in these products will still
be available after the BPR evaluation
period (for example, Econea, Zineb,
DCOIT and Copper Pyrithione have all
been approved for use),” said Prowse.
“However, the cost and risk involved
with registering a genuinely new biocide
not used in another sector – such as pes-
ticides or pharmaceuticals – is unlikely.
To that end the BPR is stifling innovation
which means that the industry may lose
out in the long run as we miss the op-
portunity to use potentially undiscovered
environmentally benign substances with
excellent performance.”
“There is also significant uncertainty
about how each country will manage the
authorization of individual products,” he
continued. “The ambitious protection
goals of individual Governments may ul-
timately create a patchwork of regulation
in which products are restricted from use
in some countries but approved in oth-
ers. If antifouling products aren’t regulat-
ed in an appropriate and consistent way
across the EU then there is a very real
threat that the construction and mainte-
nance industries will be pushed outside
of the EU. Meanwhile, certain markets
outside of the EU are currently facing an
increase regulatory activity. South Korea
is starting its ‘Korean REACH’ program,
similar to EU REACH, which will affect
how products are classified and managed.
China has also tightened up on its local
chemical Inventory systems, whilst Japan,
Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and
Vietnam all have regulation in place to
control the use of chemicals in their re-
spective countries.”
As yet no specific regulatory frame-
work for managing biocides has been
implemented in these countries, instead
merely listing biocides as prioritized
hazardous substances requiring scrutiny
early in the work plan for the regulations.
What’s New
According to AkzoNobel, one of the key
trends in the marine market are the current and impending environmental regulations such as the new Emission Control
Areas (ECAs) where operators must
invest in more costly distillate fuels or
scrubbers to ensure compliance with the
new 0.1 percent sulphur limits and the
need to increase operational and cost efficiencies, combined with the pressure to
improve sustainability.
“AkzoNobel is at the forefront of
bringing new innovations to meet those
needs, particularly in hull coatings, which
are the most widely used eco efficiency
technology,” said Jim Brown, market
development manager, Marine Coatings
at AkzoNobel. “We have seen a signifi-
cant increase in demand for products such
as our multi-award winning biocide-free
anti-fouling product Intersleek1100SR,
part of the International range of marine
coatings. We also appreciate that not ev-
ery owner and operator may want to use
a premium product, but still want to im-
prove the operational efficiencies of their
fleets. Herefore, we continue our com-
mitment to providing a comprehensive
choice of products that guide customers
through the sustainability value chain.”
“For example, we have seen an up-
take in our Intercept 8000 LPP, a biocid-
al linear polishing polymer antifouling
featuring patented ‘Lubyon’ technology
that delivers predictable long-term per-
formance for in-service periods of up to
90 months,” he noted. “Although it is
priced below Intersleek 1100SR, it still
provides an average five percent fuel and
efficiency savings.”
