Aloca leads revenue parade with $21 billion

Manufacturers trumped financial institutions when the Top 50 companies were ranked by 2010 revenues.

Alcoa topped the list with revenues of $21 billion followed by U.S. Steel with $17.4 billion.

PNC Financial Services Group, which held the No. 1 spot last year, fell to third with revenues of $15.2 billion. Last year, the bank displaced U.S. Steel at the top following PNC's merger with National City Corp. and because the steelmaker's sales fell sharply as a result of the economic downturn.

Alcoa surpassed them both this year because the New York-based aluminum maker rejoined the list this year even though its top executives are no longer in Pittsburgh. The Post-Gazette revised the way it calculates the Top 50 public companies to include Alcoa and Bank of New York Mellon, also based in New York, because the companies have significant operations and numbers of employees in the Pittsburgh region.

BNY Mellon was fourth on the list with revenues of $13.6 billion.

Rounding out the top five was PPG Industries. The paints, glass and chemicals maker had 2010 revenues of $13.4 billion.

The rest of the top 10 included H.J. Heinz, with revenues of $10.5 billion; Mylan Laboratories, $5.5 billion; Consol Energy, $5.2 billion; Wesco International, $5.1 billion; and Erie Indemnity, $4.9 billion. The Erie, Pa.-based insurance firm joined the Top 50 list of local companies for the first time after being included previously as a business based elsewhere with major operations here.

The ongoing global recovery helped U.S. Steel's sales rebound by 57.3 percent in 2010, placing it third on the list of companies ranked according to revenue growth. HFF, a commercial real estate broker, experienced the largest revenue growth with an 80.7 percent jump in sales to $140 million.

Ranked just behind HFF, according to revenue growth, was zinc manufacturer Horsehead Holding, up 76.6 percent.