On Thursday, VanEck announced the launch of the VanEck Green Metals ETF (GMET), a new fund that provides comprehensive global exposure to the producers, refiners, processors, and recyclers of the green metals that are essential to the world’s ongoing transition to a low-carbon economy.
“New technologies, from electric vehicles to offshore wind farms, cannot function without green metals such as lithium, copper, zinc and manganese. As governments around the world mandate and consumers embrace these shifts to lower-carbon approaches, demand for these metals is only expected to increase,” said Brandon Rakszawski, senior ETF product manager with VanEck. “We’re very pleased to be introducing GMET, a powerful new tool for investors looking to add global exposure to the leading and emerging companies driving the supply of green metals.”
VanEck notes that the share of demand for green metals is poised to be driven by increased clean energy projects and advancements in the decades to come. For example, according to the IEA, as of 2020, clean energy efforts drove 29% of the demand for lithium. That number is expected to increase to 92% by 2040. Similarly, clean energy demand for cobalt is expected to rise from 15% to 69%, while clean energy demand for nickel is expected to increase from 8% to 61% over the same time frame.[1] Concurrently, significant deficits in supply relative to increasing demand, long project lead times, and declining resource quality all have the potential to drive metals prices higher.
“Those trends are key to note, but the green metals story is not just one of supply and demand,” added Rakszawski. “In the transition to a low carbon economy, we are poised to see a shift in geographic influence as countries like China, Chile, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are well-positioned to influence the global supply of green metals, making a global approach to this category essential for investors.”
GMET seeks to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS Global Clean-Tech Metals Index (MVGMETTR), a rules-based index offering exposure to companies involved in the production, refining, processing, and recycling of metals used in applications, products, and processes that enable the energy transition.
“We are pleased to provide the index to VanEck’s new ETF. Our new and innovative index builds on MVIS’ long history of providing investable benchmarks for investors seeking exposure to companies involved in natural resources industries. The index provides investors a tool to target their commodity exposure on companies involved in mining, recycling, or producing the raw materials that facilitate the world’s transformation to clean energy,” said Josh Kaplan, global head of research & investment strategy at MV Index Solutions. VanEck is a leader in providing investors with solutions focused on the ongoing energy transition. GMET joins a fund lineup that includes the recently launched VanEck Environmental Sustainability Fund (ENVIX).
GMET is listed on the NYSE Arca and has a net expense ratio of 0.59%.
For more information, visit www.vaneck.com.
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[1] Source: IEA (2021), The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, IEA, Paris. https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions
About VanEck
VanEck has a history of looking beyond the financial markets to identify trends that are likely to create impactful investment opportunities. We were one of the first U.S. asset managers to offer investors access to international markets. This set the tone for the firm’s drive to identify asset classes and trends – including gold investing in 1968, emerging markets in 1993, and exchange traded funds in 2006 – that subsequently shaped the investment management industry.
Today, VanEck offers active and passive strategies with compelling exposures supported by well-designed investment processes. As of October 31, 2021, VanEck managed approximately $82.2 billion in assets, including mutual funds, ETFs, and institutional accounts. The firm’s capabilities range from core investment opportunities to more specialized exposures to enhance portfolio diversification. Our actively managed strategies are fueled by in-depth, bottom-up research and security selection from portfolio managers with direct experience in the sectors and regions in which they invest. Investability, liquidity, diversity, and transparency are key to the experienced decision-making around market and index selection underlying VanEck’s passive strategies.
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