1. Overall and average scale of China's top 500 manufacturers grew despite financial crisis, but saw slower growth

Combined revenues of China's Top 500 manufacturing companies were 13,223.972 yuan, averaging 26.448 billion yuan per firm, up 2.23 percent from 2009, but the growth rate slowed by 25.26 percent. Combined assets reached 13,683.193 billion yuan, averaging 27.366 billion yuan, up 16.91 percent from 2009, but growth slowed by 14.3 percent. Combined owner’s equity was 4926.167 billion yuan (496 companies reported their owner’s equity), averaging 9.932 billion, up 13.24 percent compared with last year.

Subsequent analysis found that the total scale and average scale kept growing over past year, but the growth rate slowed considerably due to the global financial crisis.

2. Widening gap between heavyweights and lightweights

Sinopec Group, who took the top slot on the 2010 list, was worth 1,288.89 billion yuan in assets and recorded 1391.952 billion yuan in revenues, while the 500th ranked Shandong Kingenta Ecological Engineering Co., Ltd. had an asset of 3.04 billion yuan and revenue of 4.159 billion yuan, only 0.26 percent and 0.30 percent of that of Sinopec. The comparable figures were 0.78 percent and 0.33 percent a year ago, showing that the distance between the top and bottom was enlarged.

Combined revenues and assets of the top ten companies on the list were 3173.744 billion yuan and 3356.868 billion yuan, while the combined revenues and assets of the ten companies at the bottom were 42.177 billion yuan and 2.3946 billion yuan, 1.33 percent and 0.71 percent of the top ten respectively. The comparable shares a year ago were 1.64 percent and 2.24 percent, reinforcing a widening gap between the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking companies.

3. Mid-ranking companies to the fore

Similar to the previous lists, there was a sharpening divide between the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking companies. 22 of the top 500 manufacturing companies chalked up more than 100 billion yuan in revenues, on par with last year. Some 34 companies had between 50 and 100 billion, versus 25 last year. A total of 251 fell in the 10 to 50 billion yuan range, versus 265 a year ago, and 125 had between 5 and 10 billion yuan in sale, versus 177 last year. The sales of 48 companies fell below 5 billion, versus 11 a year ago. Table 2-1 shows the revenue of the top 500 manufacturing companies in 2010.

Twenty-six companies among China's top 500 manufacturing companies had more than 100 billion yuan in assets, with Sinopec Group leading the pack with 1288.89 billion yuan in assets. Besides Sinopec Group, eight other companies had more than 200 billion yuan in assets, including Baosteel Group. The number of China's top 500 manufacturing companies whose assets were below 5 billion yuan was 107, or 25 percent. That means a sharp gap among the companies on the list in term of assets. The assets of China's top 500 manufacturers are listed in the table 2-1 below.

Table 2-1. Scales of China's top 500 manufacturing companies in 2010

 

 

Average per capita revenue of China's top 500 companies was 1,240,000 yuan, 10,000 yuan more than last year's 1,230,000 yuan. Nine companies surpassed 10 million yuan in per capital revenue, accounting for 1.8 percent of the total companies, on par with last year's level. Twenty companies were in the 5 to 10 million yuan bracket, accounting for 4 percent of the total, versus 28 firms a year ago. The majority were below 5 million yuan, accounting for 94.2 percent. 36 companies were below 500,000 yuan, versus 38 a year ago.

Per capita assets of the top 500 manufacturing companies was 1.29 million yuan. Only one of the top manufacturing companies' per capita assets surpassed 10 million yuan, versus two last year, making up 0.20 percent of the list. Some 10 companies' per capita assets fell in the 5 to 10 million yuan bracket, on par with last year and accounting for 2.01 percent of the list. Most of the companies, or 97.79 percent, were below 5 million yuan. The number of the companies who had less than 500,000 yuan of per capita assets declined for a consecutive year to 48.

Table 2-2. Scale of China's top 500 manufacturing companies

 

 

4. Growth rate

An analysis of the growth rate of revenue and assets found that most of China's top 500 manufacturing companies had a dismal growth rate in 2010. Although a majority of firms enjoyed an increase in revenues, 99 companies suffered a decline, compared with 68 last year. A total of 32 companies posted negative growth in assets, compared with 83 last year. The growth rate of the majority was below 50 percent, indicating more and more companies were going downhill due to the global financial crisis that broke out in the second half of 2008. See Chart 2-3 for details.

Table 2-3. Growth rate of scale of China's top 500 manufacturing companies

 

  

Summary	Report on Top 500 Manufacturers of China in 2010
Chapter II.	Performance Features
Chapter III.	Industrial Structure and Distribution
Chapter IV.	Regional Distribution
Chapter V.	Ownership Distribution
Chapter VI.	R&D Expenditure
Chapter VII.	Major Problems