ESG Rating Upgraded to AA: What Customers Gain Is Trust and Long-Term Value

This year, KINGBROTHER's ESG rating has been upgraded from A to AA, reaching AA across the major rating agencies that evaluate us. The upgrade is itself an objective endorsement, but for customers the greater value lies in the trust signal it sends: a supplier that holds up under scrutiny on quality, environment, and governance carries lower risk and greater certainty in a long-term partnership. The jump reflects years of accumulated investment across quality, environment, and governance, and for customers it translates into more consistent delivery, a lighter compliance burden, and relationships that stand up over time.

Quality Is Where Trust Begins

While the environmental dimension draws the most attention, what customers actually care about is a supplier's quality and delivery reliability. Over the past year, we concentrated our R&D resources on the high-value parts of board production, including AI computing thermal management, ultra-large BGA soldering, and edge AI vision processing; our thermal solution for embedded high-power chips lifted thermal efficiency by more than 60%. On delivery, the PCB pass rate reached 97.46% and the IPM pass rate reached 99.07%, both exceeding annual targets, while the company added 84 new intellectual-property assets and reached a cumulative total of 212 granted patents.

For customers, those numbers mean less batch variation, less rework, and more predictable lead times. For downstream manufacturers that need to keep supply chain risk to a minimum, a partner that can deliver consistently is itself the greatest value. That consistency rests on process capability and quality control built up over the long term, and it is hard to replicate in the short run.

Verifiable Environmental Performance Gives Customers Less to Worry About

The value of green manufacturing is that customers do not have to worry about their supplier's environmental compliance. Our Daya Bay IPDM base is a national-level green factory, our Xi'an IPDM base passed its ISO 14001 renewal audit, and annual environmental investment reached roughly RMB 5.786 million, or about USD 800,000. Energy intensity per unit of revenue continues to decline, photovoltaic generation reached 386,300 kWh, corresponding to a reduction of 317.15 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Wastewater discharge meets standards, the reclaimed-water reuse rate reached 16.98%, and the Xi'an base's etchant recovery system achieves on-site closed-loop recycling of metal resources.

These results can be checked item by item and are tied to specific sites and specific metrics. When customers outsource their environmental responsibility to us, they do not have to shoulder unknown compliance risk on their own, and both sides can align on how sustainability is measured. That certainty is the reassurance a long-term partnership most needs.

Clear Governance Keeps Trust Durable

An ESG rating only holds up when it is backed by governance structure, and how clear that governance is determines how long trust lasts. Our board maintains a reasonable proportion of independent directors and has established four special committees for strategy, audit, nomination, and compensation and assessment, with independent directors convening the audit, nomination, and compensation and assessment committees. The ESG management committee is chaired by the chairman, meets regularly to review special resolutions, and key indicators such as workplace safety and environmental protection have been folded into senior management performance assessments, closing the loop between strategic decisions and day-to-day execution.

On the social dimension, we maintain dual management and professional development tracks, sustain an occupational health and safety management system with no recorded occupational disease cases, and provide full labor contract and social insurance coverage for all employees. A stable, well-treated workforce ultimately shows up in product consistency and service continuity, which is the underlying source of long-term customer trust.

For customers, the value of this rating upgrade ultimately rests on long-term certainty. A supplier that has turned quality, environment, and governance into verifiable systems lets customers worry less and stumble less throughout the partnership, and it also stands up better to the test of time. Once that trust is built, it often carries more weight than any single quote.