# Timber: Stocks

Why forests, not mines, set the limits

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/stocks/

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.

#### Recycling
 End-of-life recycling input rate in the EU: 20% of demand met from post-consumer scrap (EU CRM study 2023).

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/production/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/lumber/links/index.md)