According to Fortune magazine, Chinese firms advance to detriment of under-performing US companies. - US companies continue to lose their top international ranking as the highest performer, while their Chinese sister firms now take an unprecedented lead. According to the most recent Fortune magazine's listing of the top 500 companies (assessed on their annual turnover), only 140 US firms are in the top 500. This figure stood at 153 last year. The league table now includes nine new Chinese companies among their 37 top performers. One of them (Sinopec; turnover 207.8bn turnover) has joined the top ten. Although the US has not yet had its last word and has companies such as Google, Amazon and Nike, which are all rising in value, a report by the US National Intelligence Council, affirms that China is expected to become the second biggest economy in the world by 2025. There are still four US companies in the top ten, as opposed to the previous five, but for the first time since 1995, it has been toppled from its top position by the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell ($458.4bn in 2008). The US distribution giant, Wal-Mart was number one just a year ago but has now been relegated to third place ($442.9bn). Last year's spiralling oil prices pepped up the income of the oil groups invading the top positions in the listing (seven in the Top 10), assisted by the collapse in the banking groups and those from manufacturing industry. The insurance company AIG, experienced the biggest deficit among the companies rated, with losses rising to around $100bn and falls out of the Top 500, the same goes for' Lehman Brothers and the mortgage loan specialist, Freddie Mac. The Failing car producer, General Motors, experienced one of the steepest falls in the list from 9th to 18th place with a turnover of $149bn. Japan has 68 companies in the top 500, including Toyota the car maker (10th place with $204.3bn in turnover), France 40 and Germany 39. (I.L./trans/rh)