Analysis on CSR reports of Fortune Global 500 companies in China

The list of 2019 Fortune Global 500 companies has been released, including 129 Chinese companies. But how about the overview of CSR reports from those Chinese companies? The following are some analysis and overview of social responsibility reports in China in the first half of 2019.

1348

From January 1 to June 30, 2019, 1,348 social responsibility reports (including social responsibility reports, sustainability reports, environmental, social and governance reports, environmental reports, etc.) were released in China. Among them, 1,290 reports were released by enterprises, accounting for 95.70% and 58 reports by non-enterprise organizations, accounting for 4.30%. If we take the 1,993 reports released in 2018 as this year’s assumptive total number, then so far 67.64% of enterprises and organizations have released reports.

Of the 1,290 reports released by enterprises, 1,226 provide electronic versions for downloading, while the other 64 only have news on report release, but the contents of report cannot be found. Therefore, the analysis only covers those 1,226 corporate reports with electronic versions.
 

Number of social responsibility reports released in mainland China in 2001-2018

933
 

From the type of corporate reports*, 933 reports are named social responsibility report, accounting for 76.10%; 21 are named sustainability report, accounting for 1.71%; and 272 are named environmental, social and governance report, accounting for 22.19%; 16 are other related reports, accounting for 1.31%.
 

Distribution of report types

*Note: Some reports are both social responsibility reports and environmental, social and governance reports.

66.08%

From the regions where the enterprise reporters are located, 810 are in the east China, accounting for 66.08%, of which 465 in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, accounting for 37.93%; 145 are in the central China and 126 in the west China, accounting for 11.82% and 10.28% respectively; 145 are headquartered in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and abroad, accounting for 11.82%.
 

(The division of the east, central and west regions in China is based on the division criteria from National Bureau of Statistics)
 

547

From industry distribution of enterprise reporters, manufacturing industry has the highest number, with a total of 547, accounting for 44.62%. It is followed by financial industry, information technology, and production and supply industries (of electricity, heat, gas and water, etc.), accounting for 7.67%, 7.10%, and 6.77% respectively.
 

Industry distribution of enterprise reporters 
 

292

From the frequency of reports release, 292 enterprises released 10 times or more, accounting for 23.82%; 356 enterprises released 5-9 times, accounting for 29.04%; 578 of them released 4 times or less, accounting for 47.14%. Among them, 205 of them released reports in 2019 for the first time, accounting for 16.72%.
 

 

Reports release frequency

82.54%

From the release timeliness of the corporate reports, more than 80% of the reports are released within first 4 months of their fiscal year, accounting for 82.54%.
 

Release timeliness

611

From the ownership of enterprises, 611 reports were issued by state-owned enterprises and state-owned holding enterprises, accounting for 49.84%, of which 30 were issued by central state-owned enterprises, accounting for 2.45%; 418 reports were issued by private enterprises, accounting for 34.09%; 180 reports were issued by foreign-invested enterprises and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan enterprises, accounting for 14.68%; Other types of enterprises issued 17 reports, accounting for 1.39%.
 

Distribution of enterprise ownership
 

1172

Among the enterprise reporters, of them 1,172 (95.60%) are listed companies; 54 (4.40%) are non-listed companies.
 

Listed company reporters

*Note: Some enterprises have two or more listed companies.

972

Among the enterprise scale of the reports, there were 972 growing enterprises, accounting for 79.28%, and 254 leading enterprises, accounting for 20.72%.
 

Distribution of enterprise scale

Overview of CSR reports of Fortune Global 500 companies in China

In the 2019 Fortune Global 500, 129 Chinese enterprises were listed, of which 79* issued CSR reports, accounting for 61.24%. Among them, there are 47 enterprises that have issued reports 10 times or more, 21 enterprises have issued reports 5-9 times, and 11 have issued reports 4 times or less.
 

Release frequency of Chinese companies on Fortune Global 500

*Note: On July 22, 2019, FORTUNE CHINA issued a list of Fortune Global 500 companies. In order to better analyze the CSR reports of those Chinese companies on the list, all reports here were collected from January 1, 2019 to July 31, 2019.