Nippon Steel Corporation and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) have received the Contribution Prize for fiscal 2010 from the New Technology Development Foundation at the 43rd Ichimura Industrial Awards, Exim News Service reported. The prize was awarded for the development and use of NSGP-1 highly corrosion-resistant steel plate that is now being used on crude oil tankers around the world.

The Ichimura Industrial Awards are respected for their tradition of recognising firms contributing to the growth of Japanese industries through the domestic development of technology.

During the latter half of the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of deep-pit corrosions were often found on the bottom plates of tanks in crude oil tankers, which created the risk of leakage and marine pollution. The solution at that time was for the tanks to be regularly inspected and painted, but such maintenance required great time and cost. Therefore, a radical solution for corrosion resistance was needed.

Nippon Steel identified that the corrosion was caused by highly concentrated and strong acidic salt water that would separate out from crude oil and accumulate at the bottom of the tanks. The company then developed a new steel material, NSGP-1, which exhibited superior corrosion resistance even in an extraordinarily severe environment. Contributing factors included an optimal component design in terms of the type and quantity of alloy added to steel stock as well as the technology used on the surface of the steel stock.

The two companies applied NSGP-1 to the bottom of a tank on one of NYK Line's very large crude oil carriers to confirm the effects. Before the use of NSGP-1, inspection of a traditional crude oil carrier would typically indicate thousands of pits needing repair. Since the adoption of NSGP-1, no pits have been found and thus no repairs have been needed.

NYK Line then decided to adopt NSGP-1 on all newly built crude oil tankers, and since 2007 the company has used more than 15,000 tonnes of the material (equal to approximately 10 VLCCs).