Xinhua | China Northern Rare Earth Achieves "Dual Growth" in Revenue and Profit in Q1

On the evening of April 28, China Northern Rare Earth released its 2026 first-quarter (Q1) financial report. In Q1, the company posted operating revenue of RMB 11.859 billion, up 27.69% year-on-year; net profit attributable to parent shareholders reached RMB 918 million, surging 113.12% year-on-year; net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses stood at RMB 883 million, an increase of 103.21% year-on-year, marking a remarkable improvement in core business profitability. Nevertheless, the net cash flow generated from operating activities recorded a deficit of RMB 272 million in the quarter, down 166.27% year-on-year, reflecting mounting pressure on cash flow performance.

The company disclosed that the substantial year-on-year growth in Q1 performance was mainly driven by higher average prices of major rare earth products represented by praseodymium-neodymium products and a year-on-year rise in gross profit margin. According to quotations from the Baotou Rare Earth Products Exchange, the average price of praseodymium-neodymium oxide stood at RMB 719,500 per ton as of March 31, up 18.22% from the start of the year. The company stated that downstream demand represented by rare earth permanent magnet materials maintained a growth momentum, bolstering the overall strength of the rare earth market.

In Q1, all business segments of China Northern Rare Earth advanced in tandem, delivering outstanding achievements in market expansion and product performance.

In the magnetic materials sector, the sales volume of the company's rare earth metals and magnetic materials climbed steadily, achieving full coverage of leading domestic magnetic material enterprises. Magnetic material producers continued to release production capacity advantages, with the supply coverage in Baotou exceeding 95%. The capability of rare earth permanent magnet motor systems in serving clients kept improving, with the winning bid amount of a single project breaking RMB 10 million for the first time and application scenarios further expanded.

For lanthanum-cerium products, the company optimized marketing strategies, underpinning basic business volume via long-term framework orders while meeting differentiated demand through retail sales, thereby further expanding market share. In terms of polishing materials, the company enlarged market share by expanding customer channels and launching new low-cost products, with sales volume in high-end sectors posting a slight increase. In addition, multiple newly developed high-performance solid-state hydrogen storage materials have been launched to the market, featuring high hydrogen storage density, rapid hydrogen absorption and desorption at normal temperature and low pressure, and ultra-long cycle life.

Focusing on industrial upgrading, the company steadily advanced the construction of projects involving mergers, restructurings, joint ventures, capacity expansion and output growth in sectors such as rare earth metals and magnetic material alloys during the first quarter. The first phase of the rare earth green smelting upgrading and renovation project has been put into operation with the full production line completed; the main structural construction of the second-phase main process plant has been finished, entering the internal construction stage. The company also established a new joint venture to build a rare earth metal alloy production line, enriching the variety of metal products and striving to build an industry-leading benchmark for intelligent rare earth metal production lines. Another joint venture project focuses on constructing production lines for cerium-containing neodymium-iron-boron magnetic materials, further improving the layout of high, medium and low-end permanent magnet material industries.

Responding proactively to market demand, the company developed 2 new products and 14 customized and featured niche products in the first quarter, with the output of niche products soaring 107.31% year-on-year.

At the industrial segment level, the company adopted targeted operational strategies: the smelting and separation segment arranged production scientifically based on the cost and process characteristics of each production line to ensure stable product supply; the rare earth metal segment strengthened lean production, leveraged digital and intelligent tools to optimize on-site process management, and achieved new breakthroughs in economic and technical indicators including product quality and material consumption ratio; the rare earth new materials and application segment capitalized on newly added production capacity to drive sales through output expansion and precisely cater to customer demands.

China Northern Rare Earth indicated that it will continuously consolidate its leading edge in the scale of rare earth resources and solidify Baotou's position as China's largest strategic rare earth resource base. It will expand and upgrade the rare earth new materials industry, optimize the industrial structure of magnetic materials, polishing materials, hydrogen storage materials, alloys and other rare earth new materials, strive to extend the industrial chain, and make differentiated layout in the terminal application sector of rare earths. The company will sustainably enhance the market competitiveness and share of its full-industry-chain products, and expand the contribution ratio of revenue and profits.

The shareholder structure also showed notable changes. According to the Q1 report, renowned "retail investor" Zhang Jianping newly entered the list of the company's top ten tradable shareholders, holding 72.2544 million shares, accounting for 2% of the total share capital. Calculated based on the share price at the end of the first quarter, the market value of his holdings reached approximately RMB 3.445 billion.

Choice data shows that Zhang Jianping held a total of four individual stocks in Q1: China Northern Rare Earth, Sichuan EM Technology, Western Metal Materials, and Sichuan Gold. Except for increasing holdings in Sichuan EM Technology, he newly took positions in the other three stocks in the quarter. Public information shows that Zhang Jianping is adept at trend investment with high trading frequency and aggressive investment style, ranking among the most distinctive renowned "retail investors" in the A-share market.