The Talga Group Ltd (ASX: TLG) share price is trading 8.64% higher at $1.32 at the time of writing. This comes as the company announced a new graphene milestone.
This is in contrast to recent movements with the Talga share price having fallen sharply since the turn of the year, slumping 29%.
What Happened
This morning's announcement revealed that Talga has reached a key milestone in its ship coating trials.
Talga has been undertaking a research study regarding its graphene ship coating. Aimed at providing a more weatherproof and chemically friendly alternative to the current commercially available chemical coating.
The primer coating was first applied to a 33,000-tonne container ship late in 2019. At the time, this was the world's largest single application of graphene. The trial was then expanded to another similar sized container ship. In good news for the company, upon visual inspection of the first ship, it appears as if the coating matches the commercial standard.
However, it must be noted that as a result of travel and access restrictions the detailed physical testing of the ships is yet to be completed. More information will be available when access is reinstated and testing can resume.
Management Comments
Commenting on the milestone, Talga managing director, Mark Thomson said:
We are very pleased to see this large scale demonstration of Talga's graphene successfully working in the tough conditions of commercial shipping. Additionally, as we can now produce our graphene as a by-product of our battery anode manufacturing process, we are demonstrating a global leading lowcost and scalable graphene additive supply for large volume industrial products.
What Now
With the largely positive results has come growing market interest according to the company. Consequentially, this has encouraged Talga to extend its range of graphene coating products.
The Talga share price has risen around 228% over the past 12 months, compared to an increase of 9.12% for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). The Talga share price currently sits in the middle of its 52-week range, having achieved a 52-week high of $2.15 and a low of 17.5 cents.
