Rare earth elements are included in the national strategic mineral catalog, and the Rare Earth ETF Huatai-PineBridge (516780) has become an important tool for capital to increase investments in the sector.

Under the dual drivers of favorable policy signals being released and an improvement in the supply-and-demand landscape, the overall outlook for the rare earth industry is expected to continue rising. Multiple leading companies generally reported high year-on-year growth in their first-quarter performance, and the sector’s medium- to long-term investment value may be further strengthened. Many market funds have also been actively positioning themselves for opportunities in this track. According to Wind data, the market’s first rare earth industry-themed ETF—the Huatai-PineBridge Rare Earth ETF (516780)—has seen continuous net inflows of capital since May (May 6 to May 11), becoming an important tool supporting capital allocation to the rare earth sector.

On the policy front, on May 9, 2026, the State Council Executive Meeting deliberated and approved the “Implementation Regulations of the Mineral Resources Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft),” officially listing rare earths and other minerals in the national-level strategic mineral category. Through multiple measures—including approval moving upward, strict control of total volumes, end-to-end supervision, tighter export restrictions, and hard ecological constraints—the regulations strengthen state strategic management of rare earths from the top-tier legal framework. They will promote further concentration and standardization of the rare earth industry, drive a reappraisal of value, and reshape the industry’s supply and competitive landscape.

On the news front, on May 11, a leading rare earth company held an earnings briefing and expressed a positive attitude toward the long-term development of the rare earth industry. The company said that, this year, with the steady increase in downstream end demand, prices of some rare earth products have shown an upward trend. Looking to the medium and long term, as the application scope of rare earths in emerging fields continues to expand—combined with technological progress in the industry—rare earth application scenarios are gradually broadening, and the rare earth supply-and-demand situation is expected to keep improving.

With policy-side and news-side positives, market attention on products such as the Huatai-PineBridge Rare Earth ETF (516780) has increased significantly. It is reported that the Huatai-PineBridge Rare Earth ETF (516780) is the market’s first rare earth industry-themed ETF. The CSI Rare Earth Industry Index it closely tracks selects securities of listed companies involved in rare earth mining, rare earth processing, rare earth trading, and rare earth applications as samples, to reflect the overall performance of listed companies in the rare earth industry. Its top five constituent stocks are Northern Rare Earth, Goldwind Technology, Xiamen Tungsten, Shengxin Lithium, and Greenmei—each of which is a leading enterprise with strong competitiveness in the industry.

The 2025 annual product report shows that, as of December 31, 2025, the number of holder accounts of the Huatai-PineBridge Rare Earth ETF (516780) reached 60,300. It is the only rare earth themed ETF in the market during the same period with more than 50,000 holder accounts.

The fund manager of the Huatai-PineBridge Rare Earth ETF (516780) and its index-linked fund(s) (Class A 014331 / Class C 014332) is Huatai-PineBridge Fund. Huatai-PineBridge Fund is among the first ETF managers in China. With more than 19 years of focus in index investment, it has built index tools for investors such as the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF (510300) and the Huatai-PineBridge A500 ETF (563360), featuring transparent exposure, convenient trading, and low fees. By the end of 2025, over the past two years, the company’s ETFs have generated cumulative profits for holders of over 164 billion yuan, making it one of only four fund companies in the entire market with cumulative profits exceeding 1,000 billion yuan during the same period.

Daily Economic News

(Edited by: Zhang Xiaobo)

【Disclaimer】This article only represents the author’s personal views and is not related to Hexun. Hexun.com maintains neutrality toward the statements, views, and judgments contained in the text, and does not provide any explicit or implied guarantees regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the content. Readers are advised to use it for reference only and bear full responsibility for all matters themselves. Email: news_center@staff.hexun.com

Report