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Directa Plus surges as it unveils world's first road surface containing graphene

Last updated: 21:43 26 Sep 2018 AEST, First published: 17:43 26 Sep 2018 AEST

road
Directa has developed Ecopave with Italian firm Iterchimica

Directa Plus Plc (LON:DCTA) shares surged 90% after announcing the world’s first road has been resurfaced with a supermodifier containing the company’s graphene.

The producer of graphene-based products said the road surface is on a section of Rome’s Strada Provinciale Ardeatina. It is part of a commercial test of Ecopave, which is based on Directa’s Graphene Plus graphene product. 

Directa has developed Ecopave with Iterchimica, an Italian-based maker of products that enhance asphalt performance and the laying of road surfaces in order to increase safety, environmental sustainability, and efficiency.

Ecopave shows promise in test

The first phase of the test for Ecopave follows successful laboratory tests, which showed that Ecopave can increase fatigue resistance up to 250%, extending significantly the service life of the road surface at a lower life cycle cost than existing tarmacs.

READ: Directa Plus sees healthy revenue growth as products momentum builds

The test involves the refurbishment of the two upper layers of a 1 km-long section of Strada Provinciale Ardeatina and is being carried out by Iterchimica with University La Sapienza (Rome) and the Metropolitan City of Rome.  

Ecopave, which was developed through three years of research, improves the surface's physical and mechanical performance by increasing resilience to deformation and by decreasing sensitivity to variations in ambient temperature. 

Wide application of G+ technology

Giulio Cesareo, founder and chief executive of Directa Plus, said: "Environmental sustainability is one of our core values, embedded in our whole production process and in the life cycle of our products. This application is perfectly in line with our values, enabling us to help to create roads that last longer thanks to our G+ family of products.”

He added: “It is another example of the wide application of G+ technology into large established markets where we can materially improve product performance. The Ecopave opportunity is substantial and we look forward to a time when motor vehicles with tyres containing G+ drive on roads surfaced with tarmacs containing G+."

In early afternoon trading, shares were changing hands at 76p each.

The news comes a day after the group said it doubled first-half revenues as more products containing its graphene additives were launched.

Clothing and accessory brands such as Alfredo Grassi, Arvind and Oakley are developing graphene-enhanced items using Directa’s G+ technology, while Grafysorber is a treatment to treat water contaminated with oil.

CEO raises stake

Separately, Directa Plus revealed Cesareo purchased 33,000 ordinary shares at 44p on Wednesday. He now owns 3,238,791 ordinary shares, representing 7.3% of the total voting rights of the company.

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