Investors in Hardide were told of how the company was continuing to trade in line with expectations at its annual general meeting on Monday.
The AIM-traded company reported that the positive trend in underlying oil and gas market conditions experienced in the 2017 financial year had been maintained through the current trading period, with Hardide continuing to see an upturn in activity.

It said the two recently-announced international framework supply agreements - one with a major international oil and gas operator and the other with a global developer and provider of completion technology - were progressing "well", with one moving into regular production and the other in development phase.

"Multiple aerospace applications continue in development and testing across a range of customers in the UK, Europe and North America," said chairman Robert Goddard.

"Considerable detailed work is underway with the engineering teams at Airbus and a number of parts are currently either in testing or in the sample preparation phase.

"In addition to the civil aerospace sector, tests have started on parts with two new prospective customers in the defence sector."

Goddard said the board remained confident that production orders would result from the work.

He added that the company was seeing "regular demand" for its coatings from the manufacturer of advanced X-ray baggage-scanners, and that customer expected to increase production further in the current year.

"We are working with Royal Mail on two further new applications after solving a wear problem that saw Hardide-coated deflector blades fitted onto every letter sorting machine in the UK in time for Christmas 2017.

"The Hardide facility in the US is performing very well and producing excellent quality product. It is currently undergoing the AS9100 aerospace audit which is on-track to be completed by mid-2018.

"The order has been placed for a third reactor at Martinsville and this is expected to be operational later this year."

"Half-year results were expected to be published on 14 May.

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