Cementitious bulk logistics · 25+ years
From raw material to silo.
Clinker off the ship, gypsum through the shed, slag and fly ash to the grinding mill, coal to the boiler — sourced, shipped, cleared, stored and delivered by one house. Hensmans Haulage has run the cementitious trade end to end for more than twenty-five years.
Trincomalee · Galle
The trade
Six cargoes, and we know every one of them.
Cementitious bulk is not general freight. It is dusty, it absorbs water, it settles in a hold, and it is weighed twice for a reason. Twenty-five years of it means we quote a discharge before we see the stow.
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01
Bulk cement
Pneumatic discharge, silo reception, moisture protected end to end.
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02
Bulk clinker
Grab discharge from the hold, hopper feeding, stockpile and mill delivery.
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03
Bulk gypsum
Shed storage, moisture control, weighed out to the grinding plant.
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04
Bulk slag
Heavy, abrasive, wet — handled with the plant and the patience it needs.
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05
Bulk fly ash
Fine, light and easily lost to wind — covered transport, sealed reception.
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06
Coal
High-volume discharge and haul to the boiler or the yard, weighed and reconciled.
Selected clients, 1997 to date
End to end
One chain, seven links, no handovers to chase.
Most cementitious cargo breaks where one party stops and the next begins. We hold the whole chain, so the tonnage that left the ship is the tonnage that reached the silo.
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01
Origin
Sourcing & procurement
Raw material identified at origin, specification and quality agreed, quantity and laycan fixed against your production plan.
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02
Sea leg
Ocean freight & shipping
Vessel nominated or chartered, stowage planned for the cargo, laytime and demurrage understood before the fixture is fixed.
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03
Alongside
Port operations
Berth booked, grabs, hoppers and shore plant arranged, discharge supervised and daily statements issued to owners and receivers alike.
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04
Papers
Documentary work
Bills of lading, manifests, certificates of origin, quality certificates and customs declarations prepared and lodged — the paperwork that makes the cargo legal to move.
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05
Release
Clearing & duties
Customs entries filed, duties and port charges settled, release obtained — with the file kept so every rupee of charge is traceable.
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06
Held
Intermediate storage
Sheds, yards and stockpiles held under watch, moisture and contamination controlled, weighbridge records kept against the bill of lading.
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07
To site
Delivery
Our own tippers and loaders on the final leg to the mill, the silo or the plant — scheduled to your production, not to our convenience.
Chartering
We fix the ship where the cargo is.
Chartering is handled in-house from Colombo — tonnage taken on time charter or as a single voyage, picked up in the load areas below and worked to the port that suits the receiver.
Far East · southbound
South Asia
Gulf
Southern Africa · dry bulk
Indicative lanes. Cargo descriptions vary by fixture; every voyage is fixed on its own terms.
Ship agency
And everything the vessel needs while she is here.
Because we are already on the berth for the cargo, the ship’s own requirements come with the same call.
Bunkering
Fuel oil, diesel and fresh water alongside, confirmed against voyage orders.
Crew sign-on & sign-off
Airport meet, immigration and port passes, transport to the gangway.
Cash to master
Funds delivered aboard on written instruction, receipted and accounted.
Ship spares supply
Parts cleared through customs and delivered to the vessel.
Ship repairs
Workshops and riding crews mobilised for voyage repairs and dry-docking.
Lay-up, lay-off & towage
Vessels laid up under attendance; tugs, pilots and linesmen for movements.
On the record
Trusted with cement. Trusted with a call.
Our longest-standing logistics work has been with Siam City Cement — moving imported material and settling the customs and port charges that release it. In business since 1997, we have kept the same habit: answer the call, then answer for it. Ships do not wait for office hours, and neither does the desk.
- Port of Colombo
- Port of Hambantota
- Port of Trincomalee
- Port of Galle
- [YOUR INLAND LANES]
Past clients
The trade already knows our name.
Cement producers, importers and multinational manufacturers we have carried for since 1997 — the companies whose cargo set the standard we still work to.
- Lanwa
Cement 
Owned & operated
Our own plant, not a broker’s list.
Tippers, loaders and excavation plant held on our own account and run by our own crews. When a berth date moves, the machine that has to be there is ours to move — not a subcontractor’s favour to grant.
- Tippers & dumpersAshok Leyland and Fuso units on bulk and bagged haul
- Wheel loadersXCMG units for stockpile, hopper feeding and yard clearance
- ExcavatorsHitachi plant for discharge support and site clearance
- Low-bed transportMoving plant between ports and sites
Ships called
Vessels we have answered for.
Agency is a reputation built one call at a time — a bunker delivered on the tide, a crew change that made the flight, a spare that reached the deck before the berth window closed. Some of the vessels we have attended at Sri Lankan ports.
- Vessel Type Port
- MV SoldoyBulk carrierColombo
- MV Dubai CrownBulk carrierHambantota
- MV Kavo AetosBulk carrierHambantota
- MV Ithaca PatienceBulk carrierHambantota
- MV CourageousBulk carrierColombo
- MV UBC ChileBulk carrierGalle
- MV Serene LydiaBulk carrierHambantota
- MV Ocean BanquetBulk carrierColombo · Hambantota
- MV Vishva EktaBulk carrier[PORT]
- MV LausanneGeared bulk carrierHambantota
- MV Atalanti SBBulk carrierHambantota
- MV Dancewood SWBulk carrierColombo
- MV BMC AlphaBulk carrier · chartered2-year COA
- MV Vinaship OceanBulk carrier · long charterGalle
- MV Sea CrownBulk carrier · COA, 8 yearsGalle
- MV Allcargo LeelaBulk carrierColombo
- MV Sagar KantaBulk carrierHambantota
- MV Doric VictoryBulk carrierHambantota
Chartered tonnage We do not only book space — we take vessels on charter. MV BMC Alpha was fixed by Hensmans Haulage for two years to perform a contract of affreightment carrying cementitious cargoes into Sri Lankan ports; MV Vinaship Ocean ran on long charter carrying bulk clinker into Galle. And MV Sea Crown held a contract of affreightment into Galle for eight years for Holcim Trading — the same ship, the same berth, the same charterer, voyage after voyage. When the contract says the tonne arrives in March, the ship is ours to make sure it does.
Record discharge
55,000 MT
MV Vishva Ekta came in loaded with fifty-five thousand tonnes of bulk gypsum and was turned around in two days — the fastest gypsum discharge any Sri Lankan port has recorded. Grabs, hoppers, trucks and weighbridge working one shift book, with the tonnage reconciled against the bill of lading before the last truck left the quay.
Case history · 1994
The call that taught us what agency means.
Before Hensmans Haulage existed, our director took his first fixture at Ceylon Shipside Services Ltd. The ship was the MV Opatija, and she did not arrive the way a ship is supposed to arrive.
MV Opatija loaded bulk gypsum at Krabi for Colombo, bound for discharge to Puttalam Cement Co Ltd. Somewhere on passage, cargo over-loaded into the tween decks brought one of them down. The collapse took the shell plating with it, punched a hole in the ship’s side, and the sea started coming in.
She made Colombo. The Harbour Master cleared her to berth directly at BQ3 rather than hold her at anchor, and the water was pumped out before the damaged cargo could be worked. Charterers on the fixture were K Jeyabalasingham & Co.
Thirty years on, that is still the job: not the easy berth, but the one where something has gone wrong and somebody has to answer for it at 3 a.m.
- LoadedBulk gypsum, Krabi
- At seaTween deck collapsed under cargo
- CasualtyShell plating pierced, water ingress
- ArrivalDirect berth BQ3, Colombo
- RecoveryPumped out, damaged cargo discharged
- First bulk slag into Sri LankaMV Dancewood SW · Colombo
- Bulk slag into HambantotaMV Sagar Kanta
- Among the first clinker discharges at the new Hambantota portMV Lausanne
- Fastest gypsum discharge on recordMV Vishva Ekta · 55,000 MT in 48 hours
The house
Run by the family whose name is on the file.
Hensmans Haulage (Pte) Ltd is a privately held Sri Lankan specialist in cementitious bulk logistics, trading since 1997 and directed by Edmund D. Hensman. Twenty-five years in one trade is the whole point: clinker, gypsum, slag, fly ash and coal do not surprise us any more. We are small on purpose — the person who quotes your cargo is the person who answers when the ship is alongside.
Our work sits where cementitious cargo is won or lost — the hold that will not grab clean, the shed that lets in rain, the weighbridge figure that does not reconcile, the berth window that closes early. That is where tonnes and money go missing, so that is where we keep our attention.
“No man ever wetted clay and then left it.”
- OfficeNo. 7/39, The Templers Court,
De Soysa Mawatha, Mount Lavinia 10370,
Sri Lanka - Email[email protected]
[email protected] - Chartering[email protected]
- Hours24/7 — the desk is always attended