MINING TRUCKS
Gaining traction
Paul Moore looks again in detail at progress in Chinese mining trucks, as well as the latest on LNG fuelled trucks and the usual updates on the established players in a difficult market
While the market for mining trucks in China itself is fairly flat according to market leaders Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co( NHL) and Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Group Co Ltd( XEMC), and largely dominated by smaller to mid class payload models such as XEMC’ s 108 t SF31904A, larger trucks still operate in significant numbers in Inner Mongolian coal operations such as various Shenhua Group operations( Haerwusu, Heidaigou and others), as well as ChinaCoal Pingshuo( Antaibao and Anjialing) in Shanxi Province, so these are useful testing grounds for Chinese made trucks before they are exported, something which is increasingly happening. At Zhungeer, this includes 400 short ton class trucks. MCC Forterra’ s( more on the new company name later) HMTK 600A operates there, and four China Sanjiang Space Group 363 t HT3363 trucks are set to operate there in the near future.
IM has previously reported that North Hauler has delivered three NTE330( 327 t) trolley assist trucks to the Swakop Uranium Husab operation in Namibia. These will operate in a mixed fleet with Komatsu 23 960E trolley assist trucks; and 13 trucks are still out for tender. And XEMC’ s four SF33901 trucks have performed very well at Rio Tinto Tom Price in Australia( see XEMC section for more detail). SANY has also exported a number of smaller trucks.
The next big news in Australia is that MCC Forterra has sold two of its 363 t HMTK 600A trucks to the BMA Blackwater Coal operation, and had arrived in country at the time of writing.
These are the first Chinese trucks of this size to be exported anywhere, a big achievement.
There is no doubt that Chinese made mining trucks are increasingly being considered in tenders along with the more established brands. Expertise of specialist engineering consultants has been used in their design along with high quality components. And increasingly there is a feeling that the main Chinese mining truck companies are becoming legitimate competitors, while putting more focus on high quality rather than quantity, and on a better service culture. They know to succeed in Chile, Australia, South Africa, and other major mining markets, that they have to do better in the aftermarket.
In new truck models there is some major news, which may or may not be announced at MINExpo this year. Komatsu has finally joined the 400 short ton class with its long awaited 365 t 980E. The truck was recently assembled in Canada’ s oil sands by dealer SMS Equipment and will be tested at Suncor. Suncor last year committed to buying 175 autonomous trucks
Komatsu 980E chassis leaving Peoria, Illinois plant bound for SMS Equipment and ultimately trialling at Suncor in the oil sands
Terex Trucks TR100 fleet enroute to jade mines in Myanmar jade mines by barge
from Komatsu to help it reduce long term costs, so a big question is whether the 980E will also be“ autonomous ready”, and also if it will incorporate the Cummins QSK95 engine for the first time in a mining machine, which is thought likely. In Australia, there is also the question of whether Komatsu’ s fleet at Adani Mining’ s coal operation in Queensland, which is currently quoted as 55 units of 960E-2 and 930E-4SE trucks, might also include 980Es going forward, and again, Adani intends to go autonomous as well. These two projects will greatly expand autonomy beyond its Pilbara hub.
In smaller truck models, Liebherr is set to launch its as yet unnamed 100 t truck to complete its line-up with the T284 and T264. It will have stiff competition with the Caterpillar 777, Terex Trucks TR100 and a host of other models of this class, but it will allow Liebherr to compete outside its traditional large scale and capacity truck fleet tenders, which these days are few and far between.
Finally, returning to trolley assist there is also news. Boliden is said to be considering trolley assist trucking at its Aitik operation, while trolley is also planned at Kevitsa that it is in the process of acquiring from FQM. In Panama, the FQM Cobre Panama operation plans to use 25 363 t class trucks under trolley … which could be 960Es or trolley Hitachi EH5000ACIIIs. And they could also be Liebherr trolley T284 trucks, as two of this model will represent Liebherr’ s first trolley trials with a customer at FQM Sentinel in Zambia, where they will operate with the fleet of Komatsu 860E and 960E trucks already there.
However, despite a lot of this positive news, the tragedy is that there are a lot of state of the art mining trucks doing nothing due to the low commodity prices and mines and contractors not utilising whole fleets as the production is not needed. It is estimated that some 45 % of the mining fleets in Indonesia are parked; while in Australia the figure is 35 %, for example. The challenge for operators and the key suppliers of components, such as engines, is to keep the idled trucks viable after a long period of inactivity. This also doesn’ t bode well for the
36 International Mining | MAY 2016