Global 500: Chinese companies race ahead

Three Chinese companies - State Grid, Sinopec and China National Petroleum - retain their second, third and fourth spots in the list. [Photo/ fortune.com]

Business magazine Fortune published its latest world's 500 largest companies list, or Global 500, on Thursday.

This year, China has 120 companies in the list, just behind US, 126 companies, and ahead of Japan, 52 companies.

According to the magazine, the total revenue of the 500 increased 8.3 percent year-on-year to $30 trillion in 2017 and the total profits reached $1.88 trillion, surging 23 percent from same period of previous year.

The US retail giant Wal-Mart has topped the Global 500 for five straight years. The lists ranks world's largest companies that generated more than $500 billion in revenue in 2017.

This year, three Chinese companies - State Grid, Sinopec and China National Petroleum - retain their second, third and fourth spots in the list.

The magazine names Apple, which earned over $48 billion in profits in 2017, the most profitable company in the world for the third consecutive year from 2016.

China's Big Four State-owned banks - ICBC, CCB, ABC and BOC - are ranked among the top 10 most profitable companies this year.

Eight Chinese companies saw the top 10 biggest jumps this year. China Energy Investment rose the fastest from 276 spot to 101 spot. The other seven companies are Alibaba (up 162 spot), Tencent (up 147 spot), Shangdong Energy (up 13 spots), Xiamen ITG Holding Group (up 134 spots), Midea Group (up 127 spots), Xiamen C&D (up 126 spots), and Country Garden Holdings (up 114 spots).

This year, the ranking of internet companies have significantly increased, the magazine said. Meanwhile, all real estate developers in the Global 500 list are from China.

In auto manufacturing sector, there are seven from Chinese and only two from US.

As a private Chinese car maker, Geely is one of the seven in the list. The company sales volume crossed the one million mark in sales last year, and tops the list of sales growth and biggest jump in the domestic industry this year.

Thirteen Chinese firms made it to the list for the first time this year, including China Merchants Group and Qingdao Haier.