WASHINGTON, July 10 — The number of US companies featured in the annual Fortune 500 list of top global companies fell to the lowest level ever, the business magazine said, while more Chinese firms appeared than ever before.
Signalling the effects of the financial crisis on the US economy, a non-US firm topped the list for the first time in over a decade, with Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell coming in first.
The firm brought in US$15 billion (RM52.5 billion) more in sales than second place oil rival Exxon Mobil of the United States.
China, Asia's ever-soaring powerhouse economy, saw its fortunes rise across the board with a Chinese firm — oil giant Sinopec — appearing in the top 10 for the first time, the magazine reported on Wednesday.
Sinopec, also known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, supplies 80 per cent of China's fuel.
Overall, China had an unprecedented total of 37 companies featured on the list, with nine new entries and the others climbing in the rankings.
The business publication, meanwhile, said US-based Wal-Mart Stores slid from last year's top spot to third, with revenues of over US$405 billion.
But the number of US firms in the top 500 fell to 140, the lowest since Fortune began the list in 1995.
Japan was in second place with 68 firms, while France and Germany narrowly edged out China with 40 and 39 firms respectively.
Number one in the top 500 was Shell, with US$458.4 billion in revenue, while runner-up Exxon Mobil had US$442.9 billion in revenue.
In fourth place came British oil giant BP, followed by US oil firm Chevron; French oil firm Total; US oil firm ConocoPhillips; Dutch insurance conglomerate ING Group, Sinopec and Japan's Toyota Motor.
Seven of the top 10 were oil firms and only one was an automobile company.
Of the US firms to disappear from the list entirely were household names slammed by the global economic crisis — among them AIG, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers — while the rising US firms were Google, Amazon and Nike.
Singapore had two companies in the list of top 500 — contract manufacturer Flextronics International and the world's largest listed palm oil company Wilmar International, ranked 275 and 300 respectively. In last year's listing, Flextronics was the only Singapore firm, and was ranked 292.
In announcing the rankings, Fortune noted a US National Intelligence Council report called Global Trends 2025 that said if the current trends continue, “by 2025 China will have the world's second-largest economy.”
According to a 2008 study by the US research organisation Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, China's economy will overtake that of the US by 2035 and be twice its size by mid-century.
The Fortune ranking is based only on revenues, while other rankings use profits or other factors. — The Straits Times
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