Scot Tanker Opts for MarineLine Coatings
Advanced Polymer Coatings (APC) has signed a contract with Scot Tanker, based in Istanbul, Turkey, for up to eight chemical tanker retrofits using the patented MarineLine polymer cargo tank coating system.
These eight chemical ships became available on the market and were purchased by Scot Tanker to meet growing demand from its customers. The ships are each approximately 8,000dwt, with 14 cargo tanks and two slop tanks each. The ships, named after German cities, are the: Scot Hamburg (built in 2002), Scot Bayern (2003), Scot Berlin (2003), Scot Bremen (2003), Scot Munchen (2004), Scot Leipzig (2004), Scot Stuttgart (2004) and Scot Frankfurt, (2005).
The tankers were previously coated with a phenolic epoxy cargo tank coating, however, Scot Tanker has decided to remove the existing phenolic epoxy coating and re-coat the cargo tanks with Advanced Polymer Coatings’ MarineLine cargo tank coating system.
The contract is for re-coating six of the ships, plus two options on the others. The first re-coating will be done at a shipyard in China starting in early 2016. Four other re-coatings will be done in Turkey during 2016. The remaining vessels have not yet been assigned shipyards. The work will include blasting out the previous coating, application of two coats of MarineLine, then heat curing, and inspection of the process.
Scot Tanker maintains trading routes all around the world, carrying a wide range of aggressive chemicals, including Methanol, Aromatics, Hydrocarbon-based cargoes, and many other types. “This versatility and the ability to carry a wide chemical range is one of the key reasons we chose MarineLine as there are no restrictions on the coating,” said Captain Cenk Balikci, Purchasing Manager of Scot Tankers, “We’ve found that MarineLine also cleans easily and quickly, and has a long, low-maintenance service life compared to other coatings we’ve studied.”
Scot Tanker already has another MarineLine-coated vessel that it owns and operates in its fleet.
Scot Tanker was previously called Varkan Group, and they had been in a partnership with another company. Together, the partnership built three MarineLine-coated chemical tankers in Turkey, the Varkan Marmara (built in 2007), the Varkan Ege (2008), and the Varkan Akdeniz (2009). After the partners split, Varkan Group kept the Varkan Akdeniz ship and then became Scot Tanker. “These three ships operated for six to seven years, without any problems. Only small mechanical damage repair work was done on the MarineLine coating when needed, during a dry dock period,” according to Captain Balikci.
The eight-vessel contract for MarineLine tank re-coating was recently signed at the Scot Tanker office in Istanbul. Present for Scot Tanker were: Hazer Ozkan, Owner; Ozgur Ebcim, General Manager; Captain Uygar Pamuk, CEO; Captain Necdet Uckardesler, Fleet Manager; and Captain Cenk Balikci, Purchasing Manager. Present for Advanced Polymer Coatings were: Donald J. Keehan, Chairman, Arlene Keehan, and Captain Koray Karagöz, President of MarineLine Turkey.
