BN Group eyes eco-friendly antifouling paint market

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Marine materials supplier BN Group is striving to beef up its presence in the global market with environment-friendly antifouling paint technology.

Antifouling paint coating is applied to ships and offshore structures both in sea and fresh water environments, serving the dual purpose of protecting the structure from deterioration and keeping ships looking good. The related technologies are now at an inflection point.

“BN Chemical, the group’s antifouling paint coating affiliate, started developing an environment-friendly marine coating system, which is applied to the underwater hull of ships, as some areas of the United States plans to prohibit port entry of ships coated with cuprous oxide on the hull,” BN Group Honorary Chairman Cho Sung-je said.

“Most ships have applied highly concentrated copper oxide on the hull, containing extra biocides such as zinc pyrithione or organic algaecides to cope with slime and weed growth. Those ships won’t be able to enter some U.S. ports from next year at the earliest.”

In time with the imminent regulatory change, BN Chemical recently introduced BN GreenGuard 655, an antifouling marine coating product without using copper.

While focusing on research and development, BN Chemical suffered deficits for three years, but Cho is confident that the company’s eco-friendly coating technologies will yield huge profits if the global shipbuilding industry hits bottom.

“Of course, there are some global competitors in related technologies -- one Japanese and several U.K. rivals,” Cho said.

“U.K. suppliers apply ceramic coating technologies, which are very expensive to produce. The Japanese company, in my understanding, uses similar materials and technologies as we do, but we can deliver the final products at 60 percent of the price.”

Recognizing the company’s excellence in technology, one domestic shipowner company has decided to apply BN Chemical’s eco-friendly marine coating product on four ships of its container fleet. In July, it also tested the product on one of its 130,000-ton container ships.

“We will develop sound-reduction coating technologies jointly with the nation’s largest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) from July. It is expected to contribute greatly to reduce noise coming from a vessel’s engine room,” Cho said.

Graduated from Pusan National University with major in marine engineering in 1966, Cho joined HHI as a manager of the ship design department in 1976 after serving in various post at the nation’s first shipyard -- Korea Shipbuilding & Engineering Corporation.

Korea’s shipbuilding industry along with HHI led the “Miracle of the Han River” in the 1970s, but Cho said it was regrettable that 90 percent of expensive materials had to be imported from Denmark or Japan to build a vessel.

In September 1978, he built Bu-il Industries, BN Group’s parent company and the nation’s first marine interior manufacturer, after closely examining machines and equipment used in the production of marine interior parts based on business trips abroad.

After suffering difficulties several years in making quality products and finding clients due to the prevailing distrust in Korean products, Bu-il Industries’ success came suddenly and unexpectedly -- it clinched an order to supply interior parts in the construction project of the Busan Subway Line 1 in the early 1980s.

Recognizing high quality of Bu-il Industries’ products, orders hit the doors of the firm from both at home and abroad including Japanese Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding.

Encouraged by Bu-il Industries’ success, Cho established its affiliates with ambition to not only produce high-quality marine interior products. He set up Sungju Industry, now BN STEELA, in 1989; COSMO, now BN COSMO, in April 1992; and Bu-il Vessel system, now BN BIASCO, in April 1995.

The company also created its overseas unit, BIP USA, in New York in 1998, and built the first overseas factory of BN Group in Suzhou, China, in 1999.

In February 2002, Bu-il Industries and its affiliates launched a group management system under name of BIP Group, which was renamed BN Group in January 2007.

BN Group has grown into a big company with 15 affiliates. Its consumer goods division produced Korean soju YE, a low-alcohol soju made of 100 percent natural aquifer water in 2011.

Since he was elected as Chairman of the Busan Chamber of Commerce & Industry in 2012, Cho has spearheaded various activities to help enterprises in the region.