Ray-Mont Logistics International Inc. is significantly expanding its North American operations as it responds to increasing but more fluctuating market demands for its transloading logistics services in Canada and the United States.
Plans include the CANXPORT facilities under construction at the Port of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, as well as new forays into Norfolk, Virginia, and Mobile, Alabama.
The company has a proven track record. François Raymond started it as Transport Ray-Mont trucking service in 1992 – partially naming it after his family and the City of Montreal. He soon after purchased a used reach stacker from the Port of Montreal so that he and his drivers wouldn’t have to wait for their vehicles to be loaded or unloaded. It’s from these humble beginnings that Ray-Mont Logistics was launched.
With the family enterprise well established in Montreal and led by a second generation, specifically Charles Raymond, it expanded its operations in 2008 to the Port of Vancouver. The expansion to the West Coast was made in partnership with an agricultural producer requiring transloading services for exports.
The strong demand for agricultural exports led to a further expansion to the Port of Prince Rupert in 2017 where Ray-Mont handles bulk commodities, containerized shipments and/or bagged products from unit trains or hopper cars.
In November 2020, Ray-Mont launched operations at the Port of Seattle to primarily improve the container traffic flow of U.S. agricultural products on the West Coast with additional transloading facilities.
The next spring, Ray-Mont established operations in Charleston, West Virginia, to diversify its operations to include forest products – specifically, pulp and newsprint – from regional mills, as well as resin. The petroleum byproduct is processed into plasticized pellets that are then bagged and shrink-wrapped for shipment for remoulding into everything from household containers to vehicle dashboards.
Business remains strong among overseas buyers who prefer to receive a set number of containers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis rather than a huge bulk shipment once a month or so. They prefer the lower upfront costs, and it takes less time and labour to deal with deliveries. Some customers also lack access to port facilities to handle bulk cargo.
“However, containerization demand for agricultural products has decreased from a decade ago for a variety of reasons that include customers seeking the lowest price cost per commodity, as well as Canada’s new grain facilities being geared for bulk shipments,” Kluge shares. “We’ve also had other countries becoming major agricultural producers which increases competition for both Canadian and American producers.”
Significant marketplace uncertainty is an overarching factor across the sector with a lot of it relating to tariffs placed by other nations on Canada and the U.S. respectively.
“On the Canadian side, for example, China added a 100% tariff on canola and green peas which has shifted the market to Vietnam and other Southeastern Asian destinations, but they can’t possibly absorb what the Chinese were buying,” Kluge explains. “And as of Nov. 1st, we also saw India place an additional 30% tariff on Canada’s yellow peas.”
Kluge says Ray-Mont is hopeful that Canadian government outreach will result in tariff removals or reductions in the months ahead. In the meantime, Canadian pulses – beans, lentils and peas – are being shipped to the Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East.
Ray-Mont is seeing increased export demand for Canadian pulp and newsprint by China and Southeast Asia. At the same time, Chinese demand for the U.S. forestry products shipped by Ray-Mont from Charleston, South Carolina, have plummeted because of the tariffs the U.S. and China have levied on each other. “Customers are now waiting to see if negotiations lead to a better trade deal,” Kluge says. “In the meantime, other markets include South America, Southeast Asia, and India.”
A major expansion is currently in the works at the Port of Prince Rupert. Ray-Mont will be the exclusive transloading services provider at the CANXPORT facilities that are set to launch Phase I at the northwest B.C. port in July 2026. “As the closest distance to Asia with plenty of space to accommodate unit trains of grain or hopper cars of resin from Alberta’s oil industry, CANXPORT will be an ideal facility to quickly reload ships returning to Asia with North American commodities,” Kluge says.
Located on Ridley Island’s southern tip, the CANXPORT project is designed to integrate large-scale bulk transload facilities, breakbulk facilities and an off-dock container yard. Together, the platform will support 350,000 TEUs of export transload capacity yearly, with the potential to go up to 700,000 TEUs in bulk and breakbulk commodities in future.
“What’s great is that we’ll have the empty containers coming back from the interior and be able to use them for prompt reloading and return to Asia,” Kluge emphasizes. “The project’s additional phases will take place through 2030.”
Ray-Mont has also just launched operations in Norfolk, Viriginia, to handle forestry and agricultural products from regional producers. Mobile, Alabama, is slated for Ray-Mont’s subsequent U.S. expansion in late 2026 to transload forestry products and resin from Louisiana and Texas.
