State Grid Grabs Second Place on Fortune's Global 500 List

People visit the State Grid Corporation of China booth during the 16th China International Industry Fair in Shanghai on Nov 4, 2014. [Photo/IC]

China's State Grid ranks second on the latest version of Fortune's Global 500 list, a ranking of the world's largest companies by revenues, Fortune China reported on Aug 2.

China National Petroleum and Sinopec Group grabbed the fourth and fifth spots on the list led by Walmart, placing three Chinese companies in the top 5 positions on the list.

Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, total revenue for the world's biggest companies witnessed about a 5 percent decrease to $31.7 trillion this year.

The threshold revenue for a company to get a ticket on the list was reduced to $24 billion from $25.4 billion.

Meanwhile, total net profit of this year's listed companies was $1.6 trillion, down 20 percent year-on-year, the biggest drop since 2009.

The number of Chinese companies on the list outweighs US companies on this year's list, which contains 45 new listed or relisted companies.

About 18 relisted companies come from China, including China State Shipbuilding Corporation Ltd, Sunac China Holdings Ltd and Longfor Group Holdings Ltd.

The average sales revenue and average profit of the listed Chinese companies this year basically remain the same as the previous year, despite challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

China's effective containment of the COVID-19 pandemic allows Chinese companies to recover and expand production quickly, and with an increasing number of overseas orders, the country's foreign trade expanded fast.

China was the only major economy in the world to achieve positive trade growth last year, with the annual import and export scale reaching a record high.

The growth of international trade promoted the recovery and stable development of Chinese companies' operations.