Forestry and Wood Products Insurance

Logging contractors, sawmills and wood products manufacturers rely on specialized mobile and fixed equipment. Current replacement values can differ materially from depreciated book values, and a critical machine or production system can become a single point of failure when repair or replacement takes longer than the business interruption period. In sawmills and wood products facilities, combustible wood dust can accumulate around machinery and increase fire and explosion risk from heat, sparks and friction, making dust management a significant underwriting concern.
HUB  works with you to review your current equipment replacement values, inland marine needs, commercial auto and fleet exposures, equipment breakdown protection and mill property coverage alongside business interruption periods based on realistic repair, replacement and facility restoration timelines. Risk Services can also assess controls around wood dust accumulation, dust collection and hot work procedures.
The equipment schedule needs to reflect what it would cost, and how long it would take, to replace critical machinery today.
Coverage aligned more closely with the real replacement cost and downtime created by an equipment or property loss.

Logging, transportation and first, second and third transformation are operationally connected, so a disruption anywhere in the chain can affect the rest. Construction demand and housing starts can directly influence mill throughput, and a disruption in fibre supply, mobile equipment, mill processing or downstream manufacturing can affect production schedules, customer commitments and revenue elsewhere in the business.
HUB evaluates how the operation depends on each stage and where market conditions can amplify risk, coordinating property, business interruption, equipment, commercial auto and fleet, cargo and liability considerations around those dependencies rather than treating each exposure as isolated.
The program needs to reflect the operation as a connected system, while accounting for the market and fleet exposures that can affect continuity.
A clearer view of where internal disruption and shifting market conditions can affect throughput, customer commitments and business continuity.

For Canadian wood products manufacturers with U.S. or international operations, HUB brings teams together around the same client through a unified, boundaryless team approach. Programs can be coordinated around commercial general liability policies designed to be worldwide in scope, stock throughput (STP) coverage, and insurance contracts appropriately licensed for a multi-jurisdictional operating environment rather than managed as separate broker relationships in each market.

HUB’s Canadian forestry practice works closely with Risk Services professionals before the program reaches the insurance market. Operational hazard reviews, loss analysis, property and equipment assessments and business continuity planning help identify risk-improvement priorities and give underwriters a clearer view of the controls already in place.

Sawmills, board plants, furniture and cabinet manufacturers and other wood products businesses that own or manage logging operations may, in certain provinces, need performance security under provincial timber agreements to guarantee contractual obligations such as harvest completion, slash disposal or reforestation. Requirements vary by province — Alberta and British Columbia are the primary jurisdictions with bonding requirements, while most provinces do not require them. HUB's specialized timber bond capabilities bring forestry-specific underwriting expertise to those requirements where they apply, alongside HUB Forestry Select, HUB's national program for forestry contractors, sawmills, processors and finished-goods manufacturers coast to coast.

For manufacturers expanding into broader international markets, the more relevant conversation is often around business interruption indemnity periods long enough to reflect realistic facility restoration timelines, along with trade credit protection, stock throughput (STP) coverage for goods in transit and storage and liability coverage that keeps pace with a growing international customer base.

Logging equipment operates in remote, demanding environments, while sawmills and wood products facilities combine high-value property, combustible wood dust and specialized production systems. HUB considers current replacement values, inland marine, commercial auto and fleet exposure, mill property, equipment breakdown and business interruption requirements together. Risk Services can also address wood dust accumulation, dust collection systems and hot work procedures as part of the operation’s pre-underwriting and loss-control strategy.