Lloyd’s Register Classification Society (China, [LRCS]) and International Paint have delivered their 60th training course aimed at bringing Chinese shipyards up to speed with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) new Performance Standard for Protective Coatings (PSPC) on commercial ships.
The joint initiative, which ultimately promotes safe and sustainable shipping, has in its first two years re-enforced the reputations of the entities of the Lloyd’s Register Group as the first to provide timely technical advice to industries in the energy and transportation supply chains.
Gap analyses, which assess a shipyard’s current coating practices against the new regulatory requirements, have been conducted at Chinese yards from Dalian to Guangzhou, as far west as Chongqing, and east to Zhoushan.
The regulations comprise new rules for coating ballast tanks, including some minimum requirements for treatment of the tanks’ steel surfaces. And they soon will be expanded to include the coatings on crude oil tanks used for cargo transport.
Aided by the gap analysis, the working group identified a roadmap to improvement and prepared detailed implementation plans, the progress of which was reviewed monthly. Four of the COSCO Shipyard Group’s leading yards – situated in Guangzhou, Zhoushan, Nantong and Dalian-- have undertaken the gap analysis offered by LRCS and International Paint.
In June, the Lloyd’s Register -International Paint initiative delivered its 100th PSPC gap analyses to yards across the world, including 55 facilities in Europe.
The first PSPC-compliant ship in China certified by the LRCS team was delivered on November 7 from STX Dalian.
(www.lr.org)