Sinopec Group is the first Chinese company to enter the Fortune Global 500 Top Three. The list has a record 100 Chinese companies, including 91 companies based on China’s mainland, five in Taiwan, and four in Hong Kong. The number of Chinese companies rose by five from last year. The number of U.S. companies fell to 128 from 132, the magazine said. Beijing-based Sinopec Group, with 2013 revenue at USD457.2 billion, moved up a rank to replace Exxon Mobil as the world’s third largest company. Sinopec was followed by Beijing-based China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) that also beat Exxon Mobil with a USD432 billion revenue last year. Walmart replaced Royal Dutch Shell as No 1. The combined sales of all 500 largest companies reached USD31 trillion last year, up 2.5% from 2012, while their combined profit surged 27% to USD1.96 trillion. But companies on China’s mainland and Hong Kong underperformed in terms of profitability as the average profit of the 95 firms was USD3.22 billion, USD700 million short of the world’s average and slightly more than half of the U.S. average. The 128 U.S. firms on the list generated 40% of the total profit in 2013, the Shanghai Daily reports.