Arbitral Tribunal Dismisses Almost All of Vulcan’s Claims Against Mexico

ByBraulio Carbajal

This article by Braulio Carbajal originally appeared in the July 27, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The Arbitral Tribunal of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) dismissed almost all the claims that Vulcan maintained against Mexico since 2018 under NAFTA, and only granted it compensation that the company itself described as insignificant.

The ruling, issued this Monday, only recognized one measure as violatory: the closure of a property of Calizas Industriales del Carmen (CALICA), Vulcan’s subsidiary in Mexico, which occurred in January 2018. According to a statement from the Secretariat of Economy (SE), that measure represents less than 1 percent of the amount the company originally demanded.

The dispute originated because Vulcan alleged that, between 2018 and 2022, different federal and state authorities adopted measures that affected the operation of its stone aggregates extraction projects in Mexico.

“The government of Mexico is analyzing in detail the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision to determine the legal actions within its reach,” noted the SE, which also reaffirmed its commitment to foreign investment and to respect for the rules of international treaties as the basis of legal certainty for economic development.

Vulcan, the largest producer of construction aggregates in the United States, confirmed in a statement to its investors that the Tribunal determined that Mexico violated NAFTA “in several aspects,” derived from the failure to comply with an agreement to unblock part of its aggregates reserves in the country and from the closure of its extraction operations. The company specified that the full text of the decision will remain confidential until it is officially published.

Vulcan will hold as planned its second-quarter results conference call this Wednesday, July 29, at 9:00 a.m., central Mexico time.