Yesterday, the rare earth sector, which had seen rising market sentiment, experienced some volatility and pullback. However, driven by multiple factors including continuous policy support and a tightening supply-demand landscape, the revaluation process for rare earths—an indispensable strategic resource for the national economy and high-end manufacturing—continues. Their medium- to long-term allocation value may still warrant attention. As the market's first ETF focusing on the rare earth industry, the Rare Earth ETF Huatai-PineBridge (516780) has seen strong investor interest in fund allocation over the past month. It recorded net inflows for 14 out of the last 19 trading days, with its latest AUM reaching 32.34 billion yuan and an average daily turnover of 1.86 billion yuan, highlighting its notable liquidity advantage.
China's unique mineral resource endowment solidifies the long-term advantages of its rare earth industry. On April 29, 2026, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced the latest survey results of mineral resources, indicating that China ranks first globally in reserves for 14 key mineral resources, including rare earths, tungsten, and tin. Relevant officials stated on the same day that efforts will be made to consolidate the resource dominance of advantageous minerals like rare earths, tungsten, and tin. Looking ahead, China's dominant position in the global rare earth industry chain's trade and supply structure is expected to be maintained long-term. Concurrently, the accelerated commercialization of emerging sectors such as satellite applications, humanoid robots, and the low-altitude economy is continuously expanding the downstream application boundaries for rare earths, providing solid fundamental support for the sustained industry prosperity.
The continuous strengthening of industrial policies is also injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the rare earth sector. On May 9, the State Council executive meeting reviewed and passed the "Regulations for the Implementation of the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)," which further refines systems for mining rights management and various aspects of mineral resource development and utilization. It emphasizes strengthening whole-chain management according to law, scientifically determining the catalog of strategic mineral resources, improving resource reserve and emergency systems, and comprehensively enhancing the security level of mineral resource supply. The new regulations send a clear signal of stricter supervision and standardized development, which will effectively curb the disorderly expansion of grey market capacity and further solidify the rigid supply-side structure of the rare earth industry.
Guotou Securities pointed out that rare earths are currently in a phase characterized by hard policy constraints (supply ceilings) and sustained demand growth from sectors like new energy. The cost proportion of metals such as praseodymium and neodymium in terminal consumption is very low, leaving significant room for price increases. Rare earths may replay the global supply scramble scenario seen in "storage," and the next two years could very likely be a "dividend window" for China's rare earths.
It is reported that the CSI Rare Earth Industry Index, which the Rare Earth ETF Huatai-PineBridge (516780) closely tracks, selects listed company securities involved in businesses related to rare earth mining, processing, trade, and application as its components to reflect the overall performance of listed companies in the rare earth industry. Its top five constituent stocks are China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech Co., Ltd., Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd., Xiamen Tungsten Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Chengxin Lithium Group Co., Ltd., and GEM Co., Ltd., all of which are competitive leading enterprises within the industry.
The 2025 product annual report shows that as of December 31, 2025, the number of holders of the Rare Earth ETF Huatai-PineBridge (516780) reached 60,300, making it the only rare earth-themed ETF in the market at that time with over 50,000 holders.
As one of China's first ETF managers, Huatai-PineBridge Fund has been deeply engaged in the index investment field for over 19 years, creating benchmark index tools for investors such as the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF (510300) and the Huatai-PineBridge A500 ETF (563360), which are known for their transparency, convenient trading, and low fees. By the end of 2025, the ETFs under the company had generated cumulative profits exceeding 164 billion yuan for holders over the preceding two years, making it one of only four fund companies in the entire market during that period to achieve cumulative profits over one hundred billion yuan. Regarding fee structures, ETFs accounting for 77.8% of the company's AUM adopt the lowest tier fee structure currently available in the market for equity index funds (management fee: 0.15% per annum + custody fee: 0.05% per annum).
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