Foreign companies in China took the "absolute" lead in China's exports and helped back a recovery in the country's exports last year, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Foreign companies, which are better at adapting to the international market, played "an important role" in pushing China's exports to recover last year, said the report titled with "the top 200 companies in China in size of foreign trade in 2009", issued in China Customs magazine, run by the General Administration of Customs.

Among the top 200 companies, 153 were foreign-funded in 2009, compared with 141 in 2008. The 153 companies boast combined exports of 250.74 billion U.S. dollars last year.

Huawei Technologies, with the largest exports value of 6.99 billion U.S. dollars last year among domestic companies, ranked the eighth among the top 200, the report said.

"Data indicates that foreign companies play an absolutely leading role in China's exports," the report added.

Government data showed that China's exports went into the black in December of last year, resuming growth after 13 months of declines.

Exports of the top 200 companies topped 322.3. billion U.S. dollars last year, down 6.3 percent from the previous year.