UK SIC 2007 · 52241
Cargo handling for water transport activities (SIC code 52241)
Cargo handling for water transport activities is UK SIC code 52241. It sits in division 52 (Warehousing and support activities for transportation) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 1,071 active UK companies list 52241 among their SIC codes. 524 of them list it first.
Division 52 keeps freight moving without driving, sailing or flying it. The dominant code is 52290. Freight forwarders, customs brokers, shipping agents and logistics arrangers of every kind sit there. Warehousing has its own code, 52103, for land-linked storage sites. Cargo handlers use 52243. Code 52219 sweeps up other services around road and rail transport, from lorry parks to transport management. Companies here sell coordination and space, not wheels. That is what separates them from the carriers in divisions 49 to 51.
Related SIC codes
52101, Operation of warehousing and storage facilities for water transport activities52102, Operation of warehousing and storage facilities for air transport activities52290, Other transportation support activities52103, Operation of warehousing and storage facilities for land transport activities52219, Other service activities incidental to land transportation, n.e.c.Who prospects SIC 52241 companies
Suppliers to logistics treat these codes as their master list. Warehouse fit-out and racking firms, forklift and materials handling dealers, WMS and freight software vendors, industrial property agents and cargo insurers all sell to forwarders and warehouse operators. Recruiters supplying warehouse and customs staff do the same. Watch new incorporations. They often line up with a first unit or an anchor contract win. Watch growth between filed accounts too, which usually means more pallets, more people and more software seats. Customs-facing firms often neglect their website, so the poor-website filter reads as unmet need rather than a dead end.
Lead generation for trades & construction →How to read SIC 52241
SIC 52241 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 52, are the division, warehousing and support activities for transportation. Add the third and you have group 522; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section H, transportation and storage, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
More on how SIC 52241 is built
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 52241 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 52241 are London (290), Birmingham (37), Manchester (31), Glasgow (19) and Croydon (17). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 52241 as a filter
1,071 companies is 0.02 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 52241 8th most used of the 10 codes we track in division 52. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
More on filtering by SIC 52241
Only 524 of the 1,071 companies carrying 52241 put it first. The other 547, 51 per cent, list it behind another code, which usually means the business does more than one thing and files 52241 as a sideline. A search that matches the first code only will miss most of this population, so match on any of the four SIC positions and use a second filter to tighten it.
The population is concentrated: the five busiest post towns hold 37 per cent of it, and London alone accounts for 27 per cent. If you sell nationally, those five towns are most of the market. If you sell locally and you are not in one of them, expect a much smaller pool and widen the radius early.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 52241 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 52241, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 1,071 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 52241 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 52241 companies, as leads
Tell us who you sell to. We find them, with a real email. 25 free leads, no card.
About SIC 52241
How many UK companies use SIC code 52241?
1,071 active UK companies list 52241 (Cargo handling for water transport activities) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 524 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
Which SIC code should a freight forwarder choose?
Use 52290, other transportation support activities. It is the standard forwarder code. It also covers customs brokerage, ship and air cargo agency, and general logistics arranging. The company picks it at incorporation or on a confirmation statement, and nobody vets it. Forwarders who also run their own vehicles often add 49410 as a second code.
Should a 3PL with its own warehouse and trucks register under 52 or 49?
Use both. Register 52103 for the warehousing side and 49410 for road transport. Companies House allows up to four SIC codes per company. Listing the pair gives customers, insurers and lenders an accurate picture. You can rebalance the codes later on a CS01 if the business model shifts.
Find UK SIC 52241 companies
✓ No card · ✓ 25 free leads · ✓ Cancel anytime