As a separate country, the top 500 US manufacturing firms would have been the world’s third largest economy last year

1. Mark J. Perry 

	10 Largest US Manufacturing Companies, 2014	Revenue (Millions)	Industry
1	Exxon Mobil Corp.	$424,328	Petroleum, Coal Products
2	Chevron Corp.	$221,321	Petroleum, Coal Products
3	Phillips 66	$171,736	Petroleum, Coal Products
4	Apple Inc.	$170,910	Computers, Electronic Products
5	General Motors Co.	$155,427	Motor Vehicles
6	Ford Motor Co.	$146,917	Motor Vehicles
7	General Electric Co.	$146,045	Electrical Equipment, Appliances
8	Valero Energy Corp.	$138,074	Petroleum, Coal Products
9	Hewlett-Packard Co.	$112,298	Computers, Electronic Products
10	Marathon Petroleum Corp.	$100,218	Petroleum, Coal Products
	Total	$1,787,274

	10 Largest US Manufacturing Industries, 2014	Revenue (Millions)	Examples
1	Petroleum & Coal Products	$1,617,688	Exxon, Chevron, Conoco
2	Computers & Other Electronic Products	$788,267	HP, IBM, Apple
3	Chemicals	$455,087	P&G, Dow, DuPont
4	Food	$377,850	General Mills, Kellogg, Hershey
5	Motor Vehicles	$350,695	Ford, GM, Harley
6	Pharmaceuticals	$311,292	J&J, Pfizer, Merck
7	Machinery	$284,866	Caterpillar, Deere, Xerox
8	Aerospace & Defense	$275,893	Boeing, Lockheed Martin
9	Electrical Equipment & Appliances	$239,477	GE, Emerson, Whirlpool
10	Motor Vehicle Parts	$141,430	Johnson Controls, Cummins, Lear
	Total	$4,842,545

IndustryWeek recently released its annual ranking of the 500 largest publicly held US manufacturing companies in 2014 based on sales revenue, and displayed above are: a) the top ten US manufacturing companies (top table) and b) the top ten US manufacturing industries (out of 28 total industries reported by IndustryWeek based on NAICS manufacturing classification categories here), with both groups ranked by 2014 sales. To put the size of US manufacturers’ sales revenue into perspective, here are some comparisons below to international GDP values in 2014 that help give context to the enormity of the US manufacturing sector.
(Note: Even though dollars of corporate sales revenues are not directly comparable to dollars of economic output as calculated to compute a country’s GDP, these comparisons are being used illustratively to put the trillions of dollars of US manufacturing sales into some perspective.)

1. The combined sales revenue (including global sales) of the top 500 US-based manufacturing firms in 2014 was $6.07 trillion, almost identical to manufacturing sales revenue in the previous two years ($6.01 trillion in 2012 and $6.07 trillion in 2013). To put those sales amounts in perspective, if the 500 largest US manufacturers were considered as a separate country, their revenue last year of $6.07 trillion would have ranked as the world’s third’s largest economy behind No. 1 US ($17.5 trillion) and No. 2 China ($10 trillion), and even more than $1 trillion ahead of No. 4 Japan’s entire GDP of $4.8 trillion in 2014 (GDP figures are based on International Monetary Fund estimates).
2. The top ten largest US manufacturing companies (Exxon, Chevron, Phillips 66, Apple, GM, Ford, GE, Valero Energy, Hewlett-Packard and Marathon Petroleum) had combined revenues of $1.78 trillion last year (see top table above),  slightly more than Canada’s GDP in 2014 of $1.76 trillion and not too far below India’s entire GDP last year ($1.99 trillion).
3. The sales revenue from the top ten US manufacturing industries totaled $4.84 trillion in 2014 (see bottom chart above), which was equivalent to Japan’s entire GDP of $4.8 trillion last year, and about $1 trillion more than Germany’s entire estimated GDP of $3.875 trillion in 2014.
4. Annual sales of $1.62 billion in 2014 for America’s single largest manufacturing industry – petroleum and coal products – was almost as much as Canada’s entire GDP of $1.76 trillion in 2014.
5. Annual sales of $788 billion for America’s second largest manufacturing industry – computers and other electronic products was more than the entire GDP last year of Saudi Arabia ($772 billion) and Turkey ($767 billion). Just one of those American computer manufacturers – Apple – has a current market value of $642 billion, placing it between the value of the entire Saudi stock exchange ($483 billion) and all stocks on the Singapore stock exchange ($759 billion).

Bottom Line: The comparisons above helps bring some perspective to the enormous size of the US manufacturing sector and helps to demonstrate that American manufacturers are not withering and disappearing, but thriving and prospering. In 2013, US manufacturing companies as a group had their best year ever in terms of after-tax profits, with more than $600 billion in earnings according to the Department of Commerce. Based on data through the third quarter of 2014, manufacturing profits will likely increase slightly to a new record high of about $610 billion for the entire year when data for the fourth quarter 2014 are released in March. Despite the frequent rumors of its demise and decline, the American manufacturing sector is alive and well, as the $6 trillion in sales last year for the top 500 firms and the estimated $600 billion in total profits for the entire industry in 2014 clearly demonstrate.