About us

Subsea Industries was founded by Boud Van Rompay in 1983 with a simple and clear goal: clean rivers, seas and oceans. 

In his work in Subsea Industries’ sister company, Hydrex, Boud had uncovered the true state of pollution of the sediment and water columns around the world. He traced much of the toxic state of these waters to the toxic antifouling paint used on ships, containing copper, zinc and other heavy metals as well as other biocides such as pesticides and herbicides. 

In fact, Subsea Industries began with designing and producing a line of high quality, effective underwater hull and propeller cleaning equipment designed to cover every underwater cleaning need. 

But it soon became obvious that cleaning the hulls of ships coated with toxic paint was simply adding to the already existing pollution of the sediment and that what was needed was a hull coating system that was completely non-toxic. Because a non-toxic coating would accumulate fouling, cleaning was part of the formula. 

In 1993 research begun on developing a new, long-lasting, non-toxic method of protecting ship hulls. Three years after the final development of Ecospeed, the system was launched commercially in 2002. Ecospeed is an environmentally safe underwater hull coating system that improves a ship’s performance and provides it with long-term protection. It consists of a unique, entirely original and thoroughly proven system that combines the advantages of an easy-to-apply superior coating, a surface treatment for hydrodynamic optimization and a long term underwater maintenance service system. The coating protects the hull for the service life of the ship without need for recoating or major repair and comes with a ten or twenty year guarantee.

In 2013, after more than 10 years of strenuous testing, Ecoshield, was launched for permanent protection against cavitation damage for rudders. Ecoshield is also suitable for bulbous bows, stabilizer fins, thruster nozzles and other underwater ship gear which needs special protection from corrosion. Ecoshield is a specifically reinforced version of Ecospeed. Small but significant variations of the Ecospeed formula have been tested on rudders since 2002 with extraordinary results. Ships that were experiencing heavy cavitation damage to their rudders have seen no further cavitation damage erosion for as long as 10 years after the glassflake coating was applied.  There are no signs that the coating will need replacement during the life of the ship.

In 2014 Ecolock was launched. Ecolock is an extremely tough and durable coating designed to remain in excellent condition for 15 – 25 years without drydocking, repair or replacement. Ecolock can be cleaned underwater as often as needed to meet the UWILD and weight requirements of FPSOs, drill ships and other offshore vessels. Ecolock is the result of continual R&D on offshore hull coatings since the 1990s.

In 2016 Ecofix was introduced. Ecofix is a superior, tested and proven filler that is used in combination with Ecoshield. With this product, Subsea Industries offers a full package; Ecofix restores the surface of the rudder or other underwater gear and Ecoshield will protect the area from ever suffering corrosion and cavitation damage again.

From the early days of Ecospeed, the coating had been applied very successfully to ice-breakers and ice-going ships but in 2021, Ecospeed Ice was launched as a separate product. It has the same composition as the Ecospeed coating but a different application. 

Whether it is the range of underwater cleaning equipment or the various coating systems, all products produced by Subsea Industries have the same goal in mind: To keep the underwater part of your vessel in the best possible condition for its entire lifetime at the best possible performance while not adding any pollution to the already polluted water of this planet. 

Research continues into improved coatings, better protection and heightened performance of ship hull coatings and there are some exciting projects under way. 

Subsea Industries shares headquarters with Hydrex in Antwerp, Belgium and has offices and agents around the world.