China State Construction Engineering Corp, or CSCEC, jumped from 18th last year to 13th on the 2021 list of Fortune 500 corporations, which was announced by Fortune magazine on Monday, continuing its annual rise over the past 15 years.

Also, according to the earlier 2021 Fortune China 500 list released by Fortune China in late July, the company ranked third on the list for the ninth consecutive year.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the combined revenue of 500 listed Chinese companies rose 5 percent year-on-year to 53 trillion yuan ($8.2 trillion) last year, taking up half of China's GDP, which exceeded 100 trillion yuan. The China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, China National Petroleum Corp and China State Construction Engineering Corp remain the top three on the list.

CSCEC, the largest builder in China, gained a total revenue of 1.62 trillion yuan in COVID-ravaged 2020, up nearly 14 percent from the 2019 level. The total value of inked contracts exceeded 3 trillion yuan last year, up nearly 11.6 percent on a yearly basis.

As the industry leader in housing construction, infrastructure construction and investment, real estate development and investment in China, the centrally administered conglomerate has been ramping up efforts in services for construction and operation through innovations in technologies.

In 2020, the company invested more than 29 billion yuan in research and development, highly educated talent and achieving breakthroughs in core building technologies. Many of them have been put into use, especially during the fight against COVID-19.

The leading State-owned constructor played a key role in China’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, both in China and abroad, including building the Huoshenshan Hospital within 10 days and Leishenshan Hospital within 12 days, which were deemed as key projects then to treat COVID-19 patients in Hubei province's Wuhan, which was hit hard by the virus in early 2020.