By Zhao Yu

Ningbo has set a new record on the "2025 List of China's Top 500 Private Enterprises", with 23 local companies making the ranking, one more than last year.

Leading the group were Youngor Group, Jintian Investment Holding, and China-Base Ningbo Group, which placed 45th, 57th, and 64th with revenues of 164.572 billion yuan, 148.624 billion yuan, and 141.614 billion yuan, respectively.

Ningbo companies also featured prominently on sector-specific lists. Twenty-five were named to the "Top 500 Private Manufacturing Enterprises", while five appeared on the "Top 100 Private Service Enterprises", matching last year's totals.

Alongside the rankings, the Ningbo Municipal Federation of Industry and Commerce and Jiangxia Think Tank released the 2025 Research Report on Large-Scale Private Enterprises in Ningbo. The survey covered 490 major firms, which in 2024 invested 33.9 billion yuan in R&D, up 2.5% year-on-year. These companies held 69,304 valid domestic patents and 6,082 international patents, with invention patents making up 32% of the 11,168 new patents they earned during the year.

In 2024, the surveyed firms reported combined revenue of 2.62 trillion yuan, net assets of 780.038 billion yuan, and profits of 89.266 billion yuan, rising 7.5%, 4.0%, and 6.3% respectively from a year earlier.

By the end of 2024, Ningbo counted 1.375 million registered private market entities, representing 96.7% of all businesses. The city's 9,584 large-scale industrial private enterprises generated 317.1 billion yuan in added value, accounting for 60.4% of the total for large-scale industry and up 8.8% year-on-year—outpacing the overall growth rate of large-scale industries by 1.1 percentage points and contributing 68% of their growth.

Private firms also drove Ningbo's trade, with imports and exports reaching 1.08843 trillion yuan, a 13.0% increase that accounted for 76.6% of the city's total, up 1.2 percentage points from 2024.

Emerging industries posted strong results as well, with large-scale manufacturing in artificial intelligence, high-end equipment, and other strategic sectors rising 15.5%, 13.8%, and 12.9%, respectively—all achieving double-digit growth.