Manufacture of basic metals (SIC division 24)
Division 24 of the UK SIC 2007 list. It holds 2 codes, listed in full below with the number of active UK companies filed under each.
What sits in division 24
Primary metals: making iron, steel and the first products formed from them. Two codes clear any size, 24200 for steel tubes and pipes and 24100 for basic iron, steel and ferro-alloys. The other fourteen codes in the catalogue, covering aluminium, copper, precious metals and casting, all sit below the threshold. That distribution is a fair picture of what is left of UK primary metals production.
Industrial equipment and furnace suppliers, energy brokers and heavy logistics firms sell into this division, and the energy brokers matter more here than almost anywhere: this is one of the most energy-intensive activities on the public record. Fabricators and engineering firms in divisions 25 and 28 are the natural downstream buyers and are far more numerous, so a supplier selling to metalworking generally should look there rather than here.
How to read a division 24 code
A UK SIC code is five digits and division 24 is the first two of them. Everything filed under 24 shares those digits: all 2 codes below begin 24, then the third digit narrows to a group, the fourth to a class and the fifth to the subclass a company actually picks. Division 24 sits inside section C, manufacturing, which is the broadest tier of the classification. So a code is read left to right, from an industry down to a specific activity.
More on how division 24 codes are built
Companies choose their own codes at incorporation and can change them on any confirmation statement, and Companies House does not check the answer. A company may list up to four. That is worth knowing before you treat any division total as a headcount: the numbers here are what companies said about themselves, on the August 2026 register, and the largest single code in this division is 24200, manufacture of tubes, pipes, hollow profiles and related fittings, of steel.
Working division 24 as a list
Division 24 holds 2 codes and 1,465 active companies between them. One code carries most of it: 24200 accounts for 50 per cent on its own, and the other 1 code accounts for the rest. Filtering by the whole division is therefore close to filtering by 24200 with a tail attached, so start from the code and widen only if the list runs dry.
More on working division 24
A caveat that matters more in some divisions than others: a company may register up to four SIC codes, and the figures below count every position, not just the first. A business filed under two codes in this division appears under both. Treat the totals as reach rather than a headcount, and if you need a clean list, filter to companies whose FIRST code sits in the division. 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.
Prospecting this division
Division 24 companies, as leads
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Division 24 questions
What is the difference between division 24 and division 25?
Division 24 is making the metal itself, and division 25 is making things out of it: structural steelwork, tanks, tools, fabrication. Division 25 has many times more companies, so if you are selling to metalworking businesses in general that is almost certainly the division you want.
Does a steel stockholder belong here?
No. Stockholding and distribution is wholesale, which sits in division 46, usually under 46720, wholesale of metals and metal ores. Division 24 is production. It is a common mix-up because both trade in the same material at similar scale.
Find companies across division 24
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