Smooth operators CMP Europe

SMOOTH OPERATORS

Chugoku Paints B.V. is one of the market leaders in the development and manufacture of specialised paints and coatings for the marine industry. Philip Yorke talked to Wim Versteeg, the company’s sales director, about its ultra-smooth anti-fouling formulations that are revolutionising the market.

Chugoku Paints B.V. is a subsidiary of Chugoku Marine Paints Ltd of Japan. The company has been developing unique paint formulations since it was founded in 1917. As one of the company’s premier European operations, CMP Europe’s main office in the Netherlands is the hub for its European business development activities. CMP is a global operator with a service network in over 30 countries and more than 80 locations worldwide.

CMP Europe’s product portfolio includes a wide variety of specialised paints and coatings which are being supplied to almost all major operators in the marine industry. New anti-fouling technology

A few years ago at the Nor-shipping trade exhibition in Oslo, CMP launched its latest innovative marine paint product known as SeafloNeo. This break-through in anti-fouling technology further extended the company’s technological lead over its competitors. This unique paint can be applied in the conventional manner and creates a smooth finish that is unrivalled in the marketplace. In fact it is so smooth that it significantly reduces friction and therefore cuts fuel consumption by up to 5 per cent. This product does not rely on the commonly used silicone compound but rather a different, unique polymer.

An important extension to this range of advanced anti-fouling products was launched earlier this year when CMP held a presentation of its latest anti-fouling paint, ‘Seaflo Neo-S Premium’. This revolutionary new product has been developed based on new biocide technology and contains ‘Selektope®’, a highly effective anti-barnacle biocide. This new biocide has been authorised under ‘BPR’ (Biological Product Regulation) in the EU. ‘Seaflo Neo-S Premium’ is a high-tech product that has been proven to perform very successfully as an anti-fouling paint for outfitting periods at new shipbuilding sites in Korea, China, Japan, etc. where quite often severe fouling environments are encountered.

Innovation driving growth

The company’s R&D development centre is based in Japan and focused on producing more environmentally-friendly formulations for paints and coatings. CMP Factories worldwide are able to produce the same precise formulations ensuring that all CMP customers worldwide are guaranteed an identical, consistently high quality product.

Reliability is a priority at CMP with the company aware that this is one of the product benefits that keeps it in a market-leading position.

“CMP is supported by a broad customer base. Their confidence and trust in our cutting-edge technology and superior products underpins our success in both our domestic and global markets. All our products are designed and developed based on clearly focused research activities, and distributed via our highly organised global service network,” said Versteeg.

“In terms of expansion, we have made an important acquisition to boost our foothold in the Italian market with the purchase of the leading marine paint manufacturer: ‘BOAT’. We have also been developing our business in the Scandinavian markets where we have a new sales organisation in place in the /Oslo area that is already helping us to gain a growing share of the Norwegian market. Until recently the shipbuilding market has been slow but it is now picking up with our sales in Asia, China and Korea all seeing strong growth. In fact in these markets we achieve 95 per cent of all our

new-building contracts. Overall we are seeing growth in excess of 10 per cent per annum and our global sales are now more than US$1 billion,” added Versteeg.

Strong performance

The company’s strong performance and long history in Japan has continued to play an important role in the development of its latest anti-fouling paint technology. CMP stays closely informed of the marine industry’s changing regulations and is dedicated to developing paints and coatings that meet the strictest biocide requirements.

“Most of the marine industry’s major players are aware of CMP, therefore it is for us to share the special features and benefits of our paints and coatings with them. The fact is that ships don’t lie, so if vessels coated with our products still perform well after five years, customers will be satisfied and happy to continue working with us. Forced by the current unfavourable market circumstances, the industry is price sensitive too, of course, so we need to ensure that our products perform well and are competitively priced,” commented Versteeg.

CMP endeavours to promote industrial growth with the environment very much in mind and continues its creative and innovative approach to produce optimal solutions that satisfy its customers’ needs. n

For further details of CMP’s latest products and services visit: www.cmp.co.jp/global