# Natural rubber: Stocks

Ageing trees: the hidden stock that worries tyre makers

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/rubber/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

Recycling adds little because vulcanised rubber cannot be turned back into new natural rubber; the EU puts the end-of-life recycling input rate at 2% (EU CRM 2023). India had about 1.5 lakh t of reclaimed rubber output alongside 8.57 lakh t of natural rubber in 2023-24 (Rubber World, Jan 2025). The standing stock is the tree population: a Lok Sabha question in Aug 2025 cited about 2 lakh ha of untapped Indian plantations, half of them in Kerala. Visible stocks sit in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses and Chinese bonded zones. China holds state reserves; India has no buffer stock.

There are no geological reserves; the standing stock is the tree population, much of it ageing in Thailand and Indonesia, where low prices in the 2010s discouraged replanting. Bales of TSR and RSS store well for months, and exchange-registered warehouses in China hold visible stocks that traders follow. China has also held state rubber reserves. Recycling adds little: the EU puts the end-of-life recycling input rate at only 2%, because vulcanised rubber cannot easily be turned back into new rubber.

#### Recycling
 End-of-life recycling input rate in the EU: 2% of demand met from post-consumer scrap (EU CRM study 2023).

## Other sections

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