Mexico climbs to fourth among U.S. preferred manufacturing investment destinations, UNCTAD reports
The World Investment Report 2026 ranks Mexico as the third destination for Chinese investment (2021-2025) and, for the first time, among South Korea's top five; the Yucatán Peninsula stays off the manufacturing map.
Mexico is now the fourth preferred destination for U.S. companies looking to place manufacturing operations, according to the World Investment Report 2026 issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report also places the country as the third preferred destination for Chinese investment during 2021-2025 —a period when between 2015 and 2019 it did not even feature among the top five— and records for the first time its entry into the group of five most relevant manufacturing destinations for South Korea.
In cumulative foreign direct investment during 2021-2025, UNCTAD attributes flows of 79.429 billion dollars from the United States to Mexico and 37.361 billion dollars from the European Union. The organization cites access to the North American market under the USMCA treaty, regulatory stability and installed productive capacity as drivers behind Mexico's appeal.
What it means for the Yucatán Peninsula
The UNCTAD report does not mention Quintana Roo, Yucatán or Campeche among the benefiting manufacturing poles. The Mexican Caribbean's economic profile remains anchored in tourism, services and residential construction, well away from the nearshoring corridors concentrated in the Bajío region and the northern border strip.
For Cancún and southern Quintana Roo, the practical relevance of the data is indirect: greater demand for business air connectivity between the Peninsula and states such as Nuevo León, Coahuila or Baja California, and pressure on prices for imported inputs that travel through the same logistics channel that supplies northern plants.
The Maya Train and the Interoceanic Corridor, along with the special economic zones in the Isthmus and Southeast, aim to capture part of that investment through specific tax incentives; their performance is tracked in subsequent reports from the Ministry of Economy and INEGI.
Sources
- El Chapucero — México gana terreno como destino de inversión manufacturera mundial — El Chapucero
- UNCTAD — World Investment Report 2026 — Naciones Unidas
Related
The agreement, signed on July 14 in Cancún, will bring legal certainty and code-based verification to the GODM's documents through the CNFP's technology.
Mexico's banking regulator authorized the fintech to become a bank; it has 30 days to complete the transition, and for now its products stay the same.
The annual figure sits within the Bank of Mexico's target range. What it means for what you pay at the store.
The exchange rate opened with a gain. In a city that runs on tourism dollars, every move hits prices, remittances and spending.