SHANGHAI, July 12 -- CHINA has 30 firms ranked in Fortune magazine's latest Global 500 list, an annual ranking of companies worldwide according to revenue.

Twenty-two of the firms are on the mainland, six are based in Taiwan and the other two are in Hong Kong.

Most of the mainland companies are big state-owned enterprises in the petroleum, electrical power, banking, IT, trading, insurance, metallurgy, automobile, and construction industries.

Among the Chinese companies listed, most advanced in their ranking this year while only four companies dropped.

Seven new Chinese firms made the list this year, which was released yesterday and will be published in Fortune's July 23 issue.

Among the new comers, three are from the mainland ¡V China Minmetals, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China Ocean Shipping. Jardine Matheson is a Hong Kong-based newcomer to the list. The other three are from Taiwan.

Sinopec with US$131.64 billion in revenue took 17th place in this year's list to rank as China's top company. It jumped six spots from last year. It's the first time Sinopec cracked the top 20 and the jump was attributed to rising oil prices, according to Fortune magazine.

China Railway Construction had the biggest leap forward as it moved to No. 485 from No. 586 last year.

Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry is No. 154 on the list, a jump from No. 206 last year.

Worldwide, Wal-Mart regained its title as the world's largest company, with US$351.1 billion in revenue. Texas-based gas company Exxon Mobil, No. 1 last year, with US$347.3 billion revenue took second place.

Big oil dominated the top 10 with Royal Dutch Shell at No 3, BP at No.4, Chevron at No. 7, ConocoPhillips at No.9 and Total at No. 10.

General Motors was No.5, Toyota Motor was No.6 and DaimlerChrysler at No.8, also ranked in the top 10.

Ford Motor fell to No. 12 ¡V the first time in the Global 500's 13-year history it was not in the top 10. Its revenues shrank 10 percent, and losses totaled US$12.6 billion, making it the company that lost the most money on the list this year, according to Fortune.

Total revenue for the Global 500 rose 10.4%, to nearly US$21 trillion, and net income went up 25.9 percent, to US$1.5 trillion. Neither grew as quickly as the previous year, but the profit margin of seven percent was the highest ever, Fortune said.

Half of the top 10 are American companies. In all, 162 of the world's largest companies are based in the United States, accounting for more than a third of total revenue.