The company’s latest research venture opens up yet another major addressable market opportunity.

ASX tech company Security Matters (ASX:SMX) has built a market leadership position for its blockchain technology platform, which enables the digitisation of physical assets in the global circular economy.

And in its market update this morning, SMX announced the latest global sector where research is now in advanced stages for the application of its technology; the forest, lumber and wood industry.

“After a year of research and lab trials, field trials have now commenced providing a full end to end solution from seed to plant to product, and then to recycle and reuse,” SMX said.

 

Lumber opportunity

The field trial is taking place in Israel, where SMX is headquartered, and will deploy the use of eucalyptus gum trees.

Australian gum trees were first imported to Israel more than 70 years ago as part of a strategy to prevent the de-desertification of the land, and they are now a plentiful local resource.

The goal of the study is to prove SMX’s technology application across the lumber and wood supply chain.

For its initial market opportunity, the company will target forest growers and lumber and wood companies based in EU and Scandinavia, with an improved mechanism to help them comply with policy measures implemented as part of the European Green Deal.

Specifically, its technology will play a key role in helping companies access better commercial outcomes as part of Europe’s rapidly-growing market for carbon credits.

Right now, carbon credits are only able to be accessed at the planting stage for forestry and timber companies, SMX explained.

“Using SMX’s technology the circularity effect of these carbon credits will be extended and implemented into all aspects of the forest, lumber and wood industry” including manufacturing and recycling, the company said.

Highlighting the strength of the market opportunity, SMX also flagged a number of other use-cases.

SMX’s lumber and wood research will be carried out in connection with its Fashion Sustainability Competence Centre, with wooden fibres now being used increasingly as a fabric source, enable conscious fashion and circular economy for fast fashion.

And turning to the Australian market, SMX added that local forestry companies will also be able to more efficiently hedge their insurance risk from bushfires, by accurately tracking and tracing their timber assets.

Commenting on the update, SMX CEO Haggai Alon noted the prevalence of timber products across global supply chains, ranging from building and construction to fashion and insurance, “and everything in between”.

However, a solution to efficiently track timber products across every step of the manufacturing process for improved environmental outcomes still hasn’t been developed.

“Through SMX’s unique capabilities, we will be the only solution able to solve this multi-industry issue through a ready, easy to implement scalable solution that can detect the origination and traceability data embedded in the timber and lumber through SMX’s proprietary reader and without having to undergo extensive lab tests,” Alon said.

More broadly, today’s announcement marks yet another industry in which SMX’s technology can be successfully deployed to a growing suite of addressable markets.

While the company’s technology was originally created to foster product circularity in the plastics industry, it has now expanded to food agriculture and major industrial sectors such as rubber and tyre manufacturing.

And as the company builds out its research and development pipeline, it continues to position at the forefront of one of the next major shifts in the green energy transition.

This article was developed in collaboration with Security Matters, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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