(Yicai Global) July 20 -- Fortune magazine released its 2018 Fortune 500 list on its website yesterday. China is home to 120 companies on this year's ranking, almost neck-and-neck with the US with 126, with Japan trailing far behind with 52 in third.

As Fortune 500 started to concurrently include industrial and service companies in 1995, China witnessed the fastest growth rate of the number of companies entering the list ever.

The country has 13 new entrants this year: China Merchants Group, Cedar Holdings, Xiamen Xiangyu Group, Yankuang Group, Anshan Iron and Steel Group, Shougang Group, Wistron Group, CPC Corporation Taiwan, China Taiping Insurance Group, Fubon Financial Holding, Taikang Insurance Group, Henan Energy and Chemical Industry Group, Qingdao Haier. 

The insurance field dominates the Chinese newcomers with three companies, with Qingdao Haier the only Chinese newcomer in the electrical and electronic equipment industry.

Eight domestic firms dropped out of the 2018 Fortune 500 list: Anbang Insurance Group, HNA Group, China CEFC Energy, Wanda Group, China Guodian, Shanxi Coking Coal Group, China General Technology and New China Life Insurance.

The US' Walmart claimed first place for the fifth consecutive year, followed in succession by the three Chinese contenders State Grid Corp. of China, China Petrochemical and China National Petroleum.

A multitude of high-tech companies in the IT industry made the list, with 11 Chinese tech firms making the cut, including well-known Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, JD.Com, Huawei Technologies and Lenovo Group. Their average sales income was USD52 billion with a profit of USD4 billion.

As many as 18 American IT companies made the running this year, including the world-famous Apple, Amazon.Com Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Cisco and Facebook. Their average sales revenue reached USD84 billion, with a profit of USD13 billion, 1.63 times and 3.2 times that of the Chinese companies, respectively.

The 500 firms this year had aggregate sales revenue of nearly USD30 trillion, up by 8.3 percent annually, and their total profit has broken a record to reach USD1.9 trillion in a rise of 23 percent annually.

China seems to be well on track to relegate the US to an also-ran in future lists.

Editor: Ben Armour