SIC 4226 Special Warehousing and Storage, Not Elsewhere Classified

SIC 4226

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in the warehousing and storage of special products, not elsewhere classified, such as household goods, automobiles (dead storage only), furs (for the trade), textiles, oil, chemicals, lumber, whiskey, and goods at foreign trade zones. Warehouses primarily engaged in blending wines are classified in SIC 5182: Wine and Distilled Alcoholic Beverages.

NAICS CODE(S)

493120

Refrigerated Storage Facilities

493110

General Warehousing and Storage Facilities

493190

All Other Warehousing and Storage Facilities

The special warehousing and storage industry is a heterogeneous group of companies serving a variety of niche-oriented markets. Businesses in this industry serve clients with both specific and unique storage needs. Because of this diversity, changes in the types of firms in operation occur frequently.

As a whole, the North American warehousing market grew 9.5 percent in 2005, expanding its cumulative annual growth rate since 1995 to 19.3 percent, and reporting revenue of $28.8 billion. Spurred by expanding international trade, the industry was projected to grow at a rate of around 10 percent annually from 2006 to 2010, according to Richard Armstrong, president of Armstrong & Associates Inc., a leader in supply chain market research and consulting. Reports by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and Dun & Bradstreet in 2006 counted nearly 5,000 Public Warehousing and Storage establishments with 10 or more employees and nearly 400,000 people employed in various capacities.

The majority of special warehousing and storage businesses have traditionally been involved in petroleum bulk storage and oil and gasoline storage. Most of those warehouses were located in the vicinity of oil refineries in Texas and Oklahoma. A growing trend in the industry, however, was indicated by the steadily rising number of firms offering storage services at foreign trade zones. These facilities had expanded their services in the early 2000s in response to increasing international trade. Frequently, these foreign trade zone warehouses are operated by companies whose primary business is custom house brokerage, classified in SIC 4731: Arrangement of Transportation of Freight and Cargo.

In the early twenty-first century, the special warehousing and storage industry sustained growth by expanding storage for a variety of goods, including records storage...