Time To ACT (LSE:TTA) said its Diffusion Alloys subsidiary has secured a coating project order worth approximately £600,000, with the ultimate customer a US oil and gas major.
Diffusion Alloys was the only company selected to tender for the work, and the order includes a down-payment of approximately £300,000, with execution scheduled for the 2027 calendar year.
The win lands as Time To Act has been flagging a recovery in order intake for its newly formed Thermal Processing division, which combines Diffusion Alloys with Metal Treatment & Engineering (MTE) following MTE's acquisition in May.
The company said earlier in September it expected the division to book £1.1m to £1.2m of orders that month, including its first large project order in some time, and this contract forms part of that flagged intake.
Chris Heminway, Chief Executive & Chief Strategy Officer, said the order "confirms that Diffusion Alloys is a globally recognized brand that is capable of winning work well beyond its home market in the UK" and "signals to me the unique status of our capacity and capability for the coating of large parts."
Heminway added that the order's payment structure keeps the job cash-flow positive through execution, and that it carries an escalation clause allowing the pass-through of wholesale gas price increases, which he said is "important for maintaining profit in these volatile times."
Diffusion Alloys' bespoke project revenues had stayed subdued even as the Thermal Processing division's short-cycle repeat business ran at an annualised £5m to £6m, a level the company has said covers core group overhead on a cash basis.
The order comes weeks after Time To Act restructured a convertible loan from Honeywell Technologies (formerly Johnson Matthey), originally advanced in March 2023 to fund spending ahead of expected blue hydrogen-related coating work, pushing the first bullet repayment from March 2027 to the earlier of March 2028 or completion of significant coating volumes.