Directa Plus making decent progress across focus sectors

(Sharecast News) - Graphene nanoplatelets producer and supplier Directa Plus told investors it was continuing to make "good progress" on its strategy to use its "pristine graphene nanoplatelets" to enhance the existing products of its customers and to move up the value chain on Tuesday, as they gathered for the company's annual general meeting.The AIM-traded firm said it had partnered initially with Italy-based multinationals to create reference products, before leveraging that experience to enter wider global markets.It was focussing on four key vertical markets - textiles, environmental, composites and elastomers.In textiles, it said the workwear market was continuing to grow with new applications, new materials and new territories.Directa Plus said that in the luxury sector, itself and its key customer were planning to launch the first textile enhanced by its 'G+' technology at the 29th Milano Unica exhibition at the start of July.Following the launch of a G+ enhanced denim last year, the company said it was evaluating potential new collaborations to gain increased market presence.In the environmental segment, Directa Plus explained that it was planning to offer a full decontamination service for its 'Grafysorber' pollutant adsorber product to international oil and gas and marine markets.Offering a full service to those markets would allow the firm to capture "significant" additional value for shareholders, the board claimed.Finally, in composites and elastomers, the company said its asphalt additive and retread tyres respectively were gaining "considerable" market traction with important trials expected to commence or complete this year.The asphalt additive 'Ecopave' had new trial sections of highway scheduled to be laid in coming months in Italy, the UK, the US and Oman.Directa Plus said the testing of retread tyres on a passenger bus in Milan was almost complete. With final results expected by the beginning of September."2019 has started well for us with our strategy continuing to deliver and we expect to make good progress in all of our key vertical markets," said Directa Plus founder and chief executive officer Giulio Cesareo."Our international footprint is expanding - the visibility of Directa Plus and our products in the world's largest market for graphene, the United States, has increased materially as a result of our initiatives with the US Graphene Association."We look forward to reporting in more detail on our progress at the time of our half year results in September."