With a 3200 km coastline, Vietnam has a high demand for medium and small size boats to serve public and international security purposes. With the outstanding performance, PCC (Copolymer Polypropylene Polystone) has been widely used in many countries.
According to Mr. Nguyen Kim Son – James Boat chairman, the process of building PPC boats requires waterjet cutting and thermal welding technologies. These technologies were transferred from company OFF – SEA Ltd (Czech), and mastering them took James Boat engineers a considerable amount of time. Compare to the traditional materials such as wood, aluminum and steel, PPC has more superior features.

Ferry was launched and proved to operate excellently.

The features include environment-friendly, energy-saving up to 30-40%, heat and frost resistant (-30°C to 80°C), soundproofing, thermal insulation, anti-fouling and highly durable. Moreover, the elasticity of this material helps reduce more friction than wood and steel, so the boat can reach high speed easily. Thermal welding method applying in building the ship is environment-friendly, and PPC can be 100% recycled after use.
 

The authority from the Ministry of Transportation visits the manufacturing site.

PPC provides anti-fouling feature.

In the recent government meeting, Mr. Dinh La Thang – Minister of the Ministry of Transportation stated that according to the current law and regulation, building ships from the new material is not prohibited. However, the ministry of Science and Technology said that PPC material can’t be certified since there was no official standard established for this material. Not until the standard is established that PPC ships can be registered. The standard for PPC material is currently developed by the Ministry of Transportation.
 

Heat sealing device in action

“To remove the barriers for James Boat, the Ministry of Transportation allowed the company to build 2 PPC boats for test and trial. The Ferry 42 has been completed, what’s left is the result of the fire resistant test which will be released this June by the Ministry of Transportation. Base on this result, Vietnamese Register will grant a certificate for the ship. On the other hand, Ferry 56 will soon be completed and registered” – Mr. Dinh La Thang informed.
 

Ferry 56 after its launch.

According to Mr. Thang, the Ministry supports the idea of building ships from PPC. The practice should follow the standard that is going to be established by the Ministry and the issues around building ships from this material are going to be debated this June.