Sinopec China's top earner for 8th year

China's major oil company, Sinopec, has topped an annual ranking of the biggest-earning Chinese enterprises for the eighth straight year, shows the latest set of results.

The 2012 China Top 500 Enterprises List was published by the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association on Saturday.

Sinopec, with 2.55 trillion yuan (about 402 billion U.S. dollars) revenue in 2011, was followed in second place by another oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation, which also reported a revenue over 2 trillion yuan.

The two were joined by eight other big state firms in the top 10 -- State Grid; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China; China Construction Bank; China Mobile; Agricultural Bank of China; Bank of China; China State Construction; and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

All of the companies that made it onto the list should report an annual revenue higher than 17.5 billion yuan. Of them, 107 reported a revenue over 100 billion yuan, including 15 private enterprises, according to the list.

In the 2011 version, only six private enterprises reported more than 100 billion yuan in revenue.

The 500 companies, with assets totaling 130 trillion yuan, had a combined revenue of 44.9 trillion yuan in 2011, up 23.6 percent from a year earlier. But the profit-revenue ratio declined 1.07 percentage points to 4.7 percent, reflecting that the companies failed to maintain high profit growth in the current complex economic situation.

From big to powerful

"China has surpassed Japan as the second-largest source country to produce Global 500 companies. Chinese companies have grown big. Now they face the test to grow stronger," said Li Jin, a senior researcher with the China Enterprise Research Institute.

Shao Ning, deputy head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said China's big companies have been facing "arduous challenges" since the 2008 global financial crisis.

He said in the globalization age, a country's competitiveness relies on that of its big companies.

"Compared to China's world status in the world economy, Chinese companies are still weak, lack innovation, and command no major international influence," according to Shao.

He urged enterprises in China to accelerate reform, become more innovative and improve management to grow into internationally powerful corporate giants.

Meanwhile, Song Hua, a professor with the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, observed that the top-earning companies are dominated by state banks and industry monopolies, and that their profits can largely be contributed to the favorable policies and resources to which they are entitled.

The government needs to further change its role to create favorable policies that allow big companies to grow, urged Wang Zhile, a research fellow with the Ministry of Commerce.