Invest in Hamilton

The Port of Hamilton sits at the western end of Lake Ontario, connected to global markets through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway system. It is dual-served by two Class 1 railroads, CN and CPKC, which is a relatively rare advantage that significantly expands options for shippers and manufacturers. Combined with the highway network, the port offers water, rail, and highway access from a single location, within an hour of the U.S. border and within a day’s drive of over 100 million consumers. Dave Gratti of TFI International described it as “a multimodal gem” on CHCH Morning Live. 

Hamilton International Airport completes the picture. While the port handles raw commodities and bulk inputs, the airport, which is Canada’s largest overnight express cargo airport, handles finished and perishable goods. Sue Rimac, Business Development Consultant with Invest in Hamilton, explained on Morning Live that the two assets serve different parts of the food supply chain, making Hamilton relevant to food businesses at multiple stages of production and distribution.

In 2024, Toronto Tank Lines, a TFI International company, opened a new rail transload yard at Pier 25 in Hamilton. The facility adds dedicated food-grade bulk distribution capability to the port and strengthens the logistics chain for manufacturers who need to move food ingredients in volume. 

TFI International operates over 100 separate divisions across North America, three of which do significant business at the port. Transport Corp, another operator at the port, runs over one million square feet of facilities across several divisions. The concentration of logistics capacity at this location is part of what makes Hamilton’s food-grade distribution proposition credible. The infrastructure is already here and operating.

In April 2026, Sucro Can Canada completed a new sugar refinery at Pier 15 at the Port of Hamilton. The $135-million facility, developed in partnership with HOPA Ports, is now operational with approximately 65 skilled workers and is designed to scale to up to one million metric tonnes of annual refining capacity, which would make it the largest sugar refinery in Canada. 

The refinery receives raw sugar by vessel and distributes refined product to food manufacturers across Ontario, Quebec and the U.S. Midwest. Sucro Can first established operations at the port in 2014. The move to Pier 15 represents a decade of growth and confidence in Hamilton as a location for long-term capital investment. 

About 85 per cent of sugar consumed in Canada goes to food manufacturers. Having a large, domestic refining facility at the port strengthens supply chain reliability for that sector and anchors Hamilton’s role as a centre for food-related industrial activity. 

The sugar refinery is one piece of a broader agri-food cluster that has been building at the port for years. Parrish and Heimbecker, one of Canada’s major grain companies, has operated at Pier 10 for years and recently announced a significant expansion, including construction of a third flour mill and new storage silos for soymeal, distillers dried grains and milling wheat. G3 Canada has also established grain-handling operations at the port, adding capacity to move grain to domestic and international markets. 

Tyson McMann, Business Development Consultant for Agri-Food and Food and Beverage Processing with Invest in Hamilton, noted that roughly 80 per cent of Hamilton’s land area is rural and that the port serves as a processing and distribution hub for inputs grown across western Canada and Ontario. Those inputs arrive by vessel, rail or truck, are processed and packaged, and go out to global markets. 

The Invest in Hamilton team actively markets the city to food and beverage companies in the United States, Africa, Europe and Asia that are looking to enter the North American market for the first time. As McMann put it, Hamilton is “a really easy sell when it comes to the food and beverage market.”

One of the more striking investments on the horizon is in Stoney Creek, where what will be the largest fumaric and malic acid facility in the world is taking shape. These are food-grade ingredients used in confectionery and baked goods, and the company chose Hamilton specifically because of its location and logistics access. It is the kind of investment that reflects the depth of Hamilton’s food ingredients sector, which McMann noted extends beyond food itself to the materials used in food production. 

Norm Schleehahn, acting General Manager for the City of Hamilton’s Planning and Economic Development Department, and Ian Hamilton, President and CEO of HOPA Ports, appeared together on CHCH Morning Live to discuss what the past five years have produced and what comes next. 

Schleehahn put the scale of recent growth plainly: approximately $2.5 billion in new construction and 7.7 million square feet of development across Hamilton’s business parks over the last five years, spanning Stoney Creek, Ancaster and the Red Hill Business Park. He added that despite the headwinds of trade uncertainty and the pandemic, the city had maintained real momentum, and signalled that more was coming: “Before the end of the summer, you’re going to hear about a couple of really good manufacturing announcements coming into the city.” 

Ian Hamilton spoke to the relationship between the port and the city as a foundation for that growth. When he joined the Port Authority 18 years ago, he said, the port-city relationship was not as strong as it is today. Now, he believes Hamilton has “probably one of the best port-city relationships in the country,” one that has supported close to a billion dollars in investment into the ports. 

HOPA is also working toward bringing a biodiesel plant back online at the port. The facility converts used cooking oil into biodiesel, has 67 million litres of capacity, and would reduce the environmental footprint by up to 70 per cent. Ian Hamilton described it as an example of the port adding value to cargo rather than simply moving it, and said an announcement could come before the end of the year. 

Hamilton offers food and agri-food businesses dual Class 1 rail access, marine connections to global markets through the Great Lakes and Seaway system, highway access to the U.S. border within an hour, Canada’s largest overnight cargo airport, available industrial land across multiple business parks, and a workforce with extensive manufacturing experience. 

The Invest in Hamilton team has dedicated staff for the agri-food and food and beverage processing sector and works directly with companies through site selection and connection to local partners and infrastructure. 

The agri-food cluster at the Port of Hamilton is real, it’s growing, and according to the people building it, it’s not done yet.