China’s state-owned COSCO shipping group and Japanese paint company Kansai Paint are producing zinc-coated containers in a pilot test of the anti-corrosion technology.
Its joint venture with Kansai Paint, COSCO Kansai, has completed coating 700 20-foot containers with graphene zinc powder, more than a year after working with COSCO unit Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment to explore applying graphene in zinc oxide powder coatings.
Since October 2023, COSCO Kansai has joined hands with Shanghai Huanyu to explore the potential application of graphene in waterborne zinc oxide powder coatings.
Positive results were seen when the coating was tested out on a small number of Shanghai Universal’s refrigerated containers. The pilot run was then extended to COSCO’s container leasing unit, Florens, resulting in the coating of the 700 dry containers.
Moisture is the most common cause of rusting in containers, and zinc, aluminium and zinc-aluminium blends are often used as anti-corrosion coatings.
Alison Koo
Asia Correspondent
