The aim is not only for Aon to increase its customer portfolio within the sector, but also more importantly for the firm to "become the broker of choice within the industry" it said.

A five-person team has been selected from Aon's UK offices, and a bespoke credit insurance product will be available for the pulp and paper industry by the end of this year. Initially for the UK this will then be rolled out across Europe.

Associate director Elizabeth Jenkin, who is heading up the team, said over the past three years paper merchant losses alone had exceeded 60m.

Gearing is at a record high within the paper industry, and Jenkin said there were still companies with little or no insurance coverage against supplier or customer default.

Jenkin said firms were facing two major risks: the danger of customer insolvencies, and rising interest rates.

"It does not take much from either of these for suppliers to start suffering," she said.

The firm is currently responsible for the handling of 4.2bn worth of sales for the pulp and paper industry, and Jenkin said the aim was to double this figure.

"Aon has aggressive targets of 10% growth per year, and one way to achieve this is by getting closer to our customers," she said.