Why FM should be brokers’ first choice for pulp and paper placements

The pulp and paper sector can be unforgiving. Volatile energy and raw material prices, thin margins, and ever‑tighter decarbonization and regulatory requirements are squeezing budgets and options. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions and fragile supply chains make it harder to keep production and distribution running smoothly.

For mills, these pressures are magnified by the capital tied up in their assets. A serious loss or outage hits earnings, balance sheets, and insurability. Many must run almost continuously to stay competitive, even as they explore how to embrace sustainability and more renewable energy sources.

That complexity lands on your desk as a broker. You are asked to find high limits for intricate, technically demanding risks for clients with limited room for error. Forest Products Operations at FM exists to help you meet that challenge, drawing on nearly 150 years of focused experience in this industry.

Global specialists who speak the industry’s language

Forest Products is one of FM’s global operations. That means you get access to a global bench of experts who work exclusively on forest products. They bring deep knowledge of this sector’s assets, processes, transformation needs, and loss patterns to every engagement.

Our engineers complete extensive, industry‑specific training and work closely with machinery experts focused on the most critical and vulnerable assets, such as paper machines and chemical recovery boilers. We recognize that these create unusual maintenance and reliability challenges, so we have expanded coverage to help clients manage these and ensure operational resilience.

FM claims adjusters and policy wording specialists are equally steeped in the sector, designing covers and sublimits that account for everything from seedlings to end products, to the nuances of recovery boiler outages.

Bringing FM into a placement is not simply about adding capacity. It is about putting genuine subject-matter experts at the table, who can speak your clients’ language on topics like fiber strategy, energy mix, or decarbonization technologies. This strengthens your own credibility with your clients.

Managing high‑severity risks with data and experience

Pulp and paper sector risk is structural, interconnected, and concentrated in high‑severity scenarios. Executive risk agendas increasingly reflect this, focusing on capital efficiency, resilience, and return on investment.

FM Forest Products Operations is built around this view. We support loss prevention and resilience, concentrating on the things that most directly threaten capital and uptime: Pulping operations, paper machines, critical energy infrastructure, and bottleneck equipment. Data driven standards, field experience, and loss learnings help us prioritize the most impactful protection measures.

Climate resilience is a growing part of that work. Flood exposure is a key concern for mills located near rivers. High winds can damage facilities, especially in exposed territories. Wildfires can force mills to close, while earthquakes can disrupt machines, requiring realignment before production can resume. Understanding these site-specific hazards helps clients prioritize practical resilience measures.

Adequate protection for roll-paper storage is another priority. Storage areas are becoming larger, higher and more automated, increasing the concentration of value and the complexity of the fire risk. FM’s extensive research helps the industry identify effective, cost-efficient solutions as storage methods continue to evolve.

We work with mills on smarter, predictive maintenance strategies to identify problems before they become catastrophic. On sustainability and energy transition projects—such as divesting from coal and oil, adding biomass, or integrating renewables—we also help clients to manage new exposures and maximize ROI.

This approach lets you frame submissions around protecting capital, preserving uptime, and aligning with executive priorities. That makes it easier to tell a compelling, board‑level story about why the program you are proposing truly supports your client’s strategy.

Making complex placements easier for brokers

FM partners flexibly with brokers to meet clients’ capacity and coverage needs. We are open to shared and layered structures, while still bringing lead‑style engagement focused on resilience. We can deploy limits exceeding USD $500M on critical assets, support local claims handling, and help you assemble globally compliant programs that avoid overlaps and gaps.

We facilitate dialogue between engineering, underwriting, and client stakeholders to place complex risks and make tough, specialist placements easier. That support is especially valuable for regional brokers who may have few pulp and paper accounts in their portfolio. FM fills expertise gaps, so you can offer truly specialist‑level advice and solutions without needing an in‑house forest products team.

The proof is in the market. In core regions, FM holds a leading share of pulp and paper business and has maintained client relationships that span decades—including a 140‑year partnership. Once brokers and clients experience the value of our depth and continuity, they tend to stay.

When the next placement lands on your desk

Next time a pulp, paper, or packaging client comes to you with a major expansion, technology investment, or challenging renewal, make FM your first call. Submit a new business enquiry here and we’ll be in touch.

This is part of a series of articles FM is producing to help brokers understand the value we can provide to their commercial property insurance clients. Look out for the next post in this series for more valuable insights.