The woodpulp industry’s use of pulpwood 
has increased nearly fourfold since the early 
1950’s. As a result, consumption is now 
above 90 million cords a year. More than 
a third of all the industrial roundwood cut 
from domestic timberland is used as 
pulpwood. 
With these trends, demand for woodpulp for the manufac- 
ture of paper and board rises fairly rapidly through the 
projection period, increasing about 75 percent, from 57.6 
million tons in 1984 to 100.9 million tons in 2030. 
Because of offsetting trends resulting from changes in pulp- 
ing technology, grades of paper produced, and species of 
wood used, average consumption of pulpwood per ton of 
pulp produced has not changed significantly over the past 60 
years. However, it has been assumed that the net effects 
of continuing technological developments and further in- 
creases in the use of high-yield hardwoods will cause a de- 
cline in consumption of pulpwood per ton of pulp produced, 
from an average of about 1.5 tons in the mid-1980’s to 
1.35 tons in 2030. 
Given the above projections and assumptions, the demand 
for pulpwood in U.S. mills rises to 112.2 million cords in 
2000, with a further increase to 142.3 million in 2030 (table 
3.7, fig. 3.6). These volumes are, respectively, about 23 
percent and 56 percent above the 91.4 million cords con- 
sumed in 1984. Part of the demand for pulpwood has been 
met by the use of slabs, edgings, veneer cores, and other 
byproducts produced at primary manufacturing plants. Be- 
tween 1952 and 1984, use of such materials (including some 
purchased chips produced from roundwood) increased from 
1.6 million to 36.8 million cords. Most of the economi- 
102 
cally available supplies of these materials are currently 
being utilized, either for pulp production, fuel, particleboard 
manufacture, or for export. Moreover, competition for any 
newly available supplies of byproducts is likely to intensify. 
Nonetheless, as a result of the projected growth in domes- 
tic lumber production, the volume of byproducts used for 
pulpwood is expected to increase by 11.6 million cords 
over the projection period. As a proportion of total pulp- 
wood use, however, byproducts decline from about 40 per- 
cent in 1984 to just over 34 percent in 2030. 
Consumption and Projected Demands for Other Indus- 
trial Timber Products—A variety of other industrial 
timber products, including poles; piling; posts; round mine 
timbers; bolts used for shingles, handles, and wood turn- 
ings; and chemical wood, is consumed in the United States. 
This total also includes roundwood used for oriented strand 
board or waferboard and particleboard not manufactured from 
byproducts. Total consumption of roundwood for these prod- 
ucts amounted to an estimated 415 million cubic feet in 
1984. This was somewhat below the general level of use 
in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when estimated consumption aver- 
aged more than 575 million cubic feet per year, and far be- 
low the 2 billion cubic feet consumed annually in the early 
1900’s. 
Chips produced from slabs, edgings, 
veneer cores and other byproducts of 
primary wood-manufacturing plants, such as 
sawmills and veneer plants, are an 
important source of fiber for the woodpulp 
industry. Most of the economically 
available supplies of such material are now 
being utilized. In the future, the pulp 
industry must increasingly turn to roundwood 
for fiber. 
