(Yicai Global) Sept. 27 -- Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies came top among China’s privately held companies, with CNY891.4 billion (USD137.8 billion) of revenue last year, for a sixth year in a row, according to a ranking published by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

E-commerce giant JD.Com ranked second with revenue of CNY768.6 billion, according to the 2021 China Top 500 Private Enterprises List released on Sept. 25.

Petrochemical behemoth Hengli Group, high-tech industrial firm Amer International Group and Alibaba Group Holding’s wholly-owned unit Alibaba China ranked third to fifth, with revenue of CNY695.3 billion, CNY691.9 billion, and CNY644.2 billion, respectively.

This is the 23rd time that the ACFIC has ranked China’s private firms, covering 5,785 with annual revenue of more than CNY500 million (USD77.4 million) each, which raked in a total of CNY35.1 trillion (USD5.4 trillion) last year, up 16.4 percent from 2019.

Some 13 companies faced financial risks including frozen assets and bond defaults in 2020, seven fewer compared with the previous year, and accounting for 2.6 percent of the total.

Rising labor costs, the heavy burden of taxes and fees, and financing difficulties are the main factors affecting the development of private firms, the report showed. But compared with the past two years, fewer companies consider them particularly influential.

Raw materials, tax, and financial costs were the major costs for the 500 private firms last year, accounting for more than half of their total costs. Raw materials jumped from third place to first, while tax and financing costs slid to second and third place.

This reflects the effectiveness of the national tax and financial services cuts implemented to boost the development of private companies, and shows the strong impact of rising raw material costs and commodity prices since last year.

A total of 34 private companies in the Chinese mainland were included in the Fortune Global 500 list for 2021 last month. Among them, 31 also made this year’s ranking of China’s top 500 private firms.

According to the ACFIC’s report, the three that did not participate in the ranking of China's top 500 private enterprises in 2021 are China Ping An Insurance Group, China Evergrande Group, and China Pacific Construction Group. They ranked 16th, 122nd, and 149th in the Fortune 500 list for 2021.

Ping An, Evergrande, and China Pacific did not make the list because they failed to participate in the survey, their revenue did not reach the entry threshold, or they did not meet the criteria for entry, said Huang Rong, vice chairman of the ACFIC.

Editor: Futura Costaglione