7 Chinese automobile companies make Fortune 500 list

Fortune Magazine's recently published Fortune 500 list for 2013 included a total of 23 automobile enterprises, one more than the previous year's list. However, as a report appearing on xkb.com.cn today reveals, only seven of those companies were Chinese. SAIC Group led the Chinese automobile enterprises, followed by FAW Group, Dongfeng Motors, China South Industries Group, GAC Group, Geely Automobile and BAIC Group.

The remaining 16 automobile enterprises were overseas manufacturers. Among them, Toyota and Volkswagen both made the top ten with gross revenue of $256.70 billion and $247.61 billion, respectively. General Motors, Daimler, Ford, Honda and Nissan all placed in the top 50 with revenues of over $100 billion each.

Of the seven listed Chinese automobile enterprises, Geely was the only private-owned company. The Zhejiang-based manufacturer ranked 477th this year with a gross revenue of $24.55 billion, down two places from 2012.

GAC and BAIC made their first appearances in the list this year, ranking 336th and 483rd with respective gross profits of $24.15 billion and $33.37 billion.

Meanwhile, SAIC, FAW and South China all made gains in the rankings. SAIC jumped from 130th place in 2012 to 103rd place this year with a gross revenue of $76.23 billion. FAW reported a gross revenue of $64.88 billion, allowing it to rise from 165th place last year to 141th place this year. South China Group, which reported a gross revenue of $47.96 billion, jumped 29 places to take the 209th spot.

By comparison, Dongfeng Motor fell slightly from 2012 to 2013, dropping four places to 146th place with a gross revenue of $61.72 billion.

Despite the impressive gross revenue results, Chinese automobile manufacturers still lack in net profits compared to overseas enterprises. For example, VW and Toyota reported net profits of $27.91 billion and $11.58 billion, respectively. By comparison, the most profitable Chinese manufacturer, SAIC, only managed to earn a net profit of $3.28 billion, just slightly over ten percent of what VW earned. FAW, Dongfeng and BAIC posted net profits of $2.62 billion, $1.33 billion and $1.07 billion, while China South, GAC and Geely all earned less than $1 billion.

Chinese automobile manufacturers' profit margins were also relatively low, with SAIC, FAW, BAIC, and Dongfeng reporting margins of 4.3 percent, 4.0 percent, 3.2 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.