Timber: Stocks
Why forests, not mines, set the limits
What this tab covers How much is left and how much is held. For minerals and energy: reserves, current output, years of supply and recycling for the top five countries. For farm commodities: production, ending stocks and stocks-to-use for the top five producers (USDA, October 2026). It also covers inventories and stockpiles.Recycling
The stock is the standing forest, which regrows; the EU is self-sufficient in roundwood and the EU CRM 2023 table gives roundwood an import reliance of 0% and end-of-life recycling input rate of 0%. Wood fibre is recycled mainly as recovered paper, and old timber as panel feedstock or fuel; no world rate was sourced. India has no timber buffer stock; forest departments and corporations hold depot stocks for auction.
The stock is the standing forest, a renewable resource whose size depends on growth, harvest and losses to fire, pests and clearing. Sustainable harvest is capped by annual growth. Smil makes the point historically: in 1820, 52% of Belgium's forest went to make charcoal for ironmaking, and forests could never have fuelled modern iron output. The EU puts the end-of-life recycling input rate for roundwood at 20%. Mills and dealers hold only weeks of lumber inventory, so demand surges reach prices fast.