Partnering with chemical sector clients to mitigate complex risks

If you have chemical accounts on your book, you already know they don’t behave like the rest of your portfolio. Each plant has its own processes, materials, interdependencies, and critical bottlenecks. This means off‑the‑shelf insurance offerings rarely fit comfortably.

On top of that, the environment around those plants is getting tougher. As we explore in this webinar, clients are navigating evolving ESG and regulatory reporting demands, especially in Europe, while also facing rising energy costs, supply chain constraints, and margin pressure. For complex accounts, that reality shows up in the timeline. Engineering visits, baseline assessments, and internal reviews are typically needed to underwrite responsibly. That’s why early engagement matters.

Involving FM well ahead of renewal allows time for site visits, data gathering and risk mitigation. It also lets you show foresight and leadership, positioning yourself as the broker who lines up the right specialist partner, at the right moment.

Bring an engineering-led approach to chemical sector clients

Enlisting a specialist partner will help you provide chemical sector clients with risk engineering guidance from experts who grasp the finer details of their businesses.

With specialists based in major European hubs and key locations across North America and APAC, FM’s chemical team comprises of engineers and underwriters with chemical sector backgrounds. They’re local experts who understand regional regulations, market expectations, and client culture.

Underpinning that is a pragmatic, engineering‑backed approach. We focus on process safety management and realistic protection requirements based on loss history and occupancy. The aim is to put the right protections in the right places, at the right time.

Data and analytics amplify that engineering view. With extensive chemical data, business risk consulting and financial modelling, we’ll help to quantify exposure, resilience and potential financial losses based on frequency and severity. That gives you a stronger story to show how you can offer the most stable program on the market to clients.

How can I partner with FM?

Working with a specialist doesn’t have to mean turning your program upside down. Here’s why our pragmatic approach positions us to be the ideal partner for any chemical company that shares our philosophy on risk:

• Flexibility on structure. In addition to offering 100% capacity coverage, FM can participate in shared and layered programs, so you don’t have to redesign a successful tower just to access specialist capacity.
• Support for multiple occupancy types. FM works across a wide range of chemical occupancies, including petrochemical or gas processing, bulk chemicals, general chemicals, fine or specialty chemical companies, and active ingredients manufacturers.
• Broad risk appetite. We cover more than just “highly protected risks”. We care about the quality of the engineering and a commitment to improving the risk over time, not that every site is “perfect” on day one.

FM is a strong fit where clients need help building resilience and making the straightforward procedural changes and targeted improvements that can stop small incidents becoming large losses. We can help you bring this expertise into conversations with clients who are under pressure from energy prices, ESG rules or supply‑chain disruption, navigating retrofits or works that may impact their resilience, or worried about operational and human error risks.

Our recommendations are calibrated to each client’s capabilities, investment plans and long‑term resilience goals, ensuring that conversations about improvements are constructive and realistic for everyone involved.

When to reach out

Partnering early with FM means you can bring experts into the conversation, apply pragmatic standards, and back your recommendations with robust data, analytics, and business risk consulting. Combined with our large and stable capacity and global presence, that gives you a more compelling proposition for your clients and your markets.

Due to the chemical sector’s complexities, it takes time to assess and write a large risk. For best results, start the discussion well ahead of renewal. This lets us explore fit, plan visits and map a risk‑improvement roadmap that works for your client’s business.

For more on how to deepen relationships with chemical sector clients, check out this webinar on chemical sector risk and resilience strategies. If you have a client who could benefit from our chemical sector expertise, we would love to hear from you. Submit a new business enquiry here and we’ll be in touch ASAP.

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.