HIGH PROFILE
Heritage with innovation
Paul Moore spoke to BELAZ General Director,
Petr Parkhomchik, on the company’s long term success as
well as future direction
Q Reaching 70 years is quite an achievement as a
company, what have been the main factors behind
BELAZ’s success?
A There have been many, but the availability of
two continuous-flow assembly lines with
dedicated assembly facility for manufacturing of
the extra-high payload capacity class trucks
together with location of the full production cycle
in one place provided maximum production
flexibility, which enabled the company to keep
afloat, despite numerous fluctuations in the
course of an uneasy historical path. The assembly
lines made it possible to produce up to 6,000
dump trucks per year.
If I had to pick one key milestone in the history
of the company it was the transition to the
production of BELAZ trucks with electric drive. The
first such dump truck with payload capacity of 75-
80 t was produced within the walls of the factory
way back in 1968. Thus, the year 2018 marks not
only 70 years of the company’s history, but is also
the 50th anniversary of the production of electric
dump trucks. For the near future there are more
than 10 additional models of electric dump trucks
under development, which will occupy their niche.
Even today, electric drive has not yet fully reached
its potential, which allows users to further reduce
operating costs, as well as improving the
environmental friendliness of mining trucks. The
electric drive is also an indispensable essential
element for tomorrow's technology, all-electric
mining trucks operating on batteries. The work
that BELAZ has begun in this direction will be a
milestone for further development and a
cornerstone for increased sales.
Q How important are the people that work at
BELAZ in making new projects happen, in design
and engineering terms? How much of this lies in
their training?
A Our history is a model of diligence and team
commitment. For 70 years, BELAZ has proved its
competitiveness, compliance with high
international requirements for product quality and
production safety, constantly improving
management, introducing new technologies and
increasing intellectual potential. Due to high
social responsibility, it was possible to create
favourable and comfortable working conditions,
to form a team of professionals able to
successfully solve challenges of any complexity.
34 International Mining | DECEMBER 2018
Today among the company personnel there are
the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of
those who helped build BELAZ and were part of
the origin of the creation of mining trucks of our
brand that is now known all over the world.
I would especially like to note the contribution
of our engineering team when creating the
BELAZ-75710 mining truck with payload capacity
of 450 t & a whole range of other vehicles and
their main systems. For example, our design
engineers for many years conducted a search for
the optimal design of the guiding apparatus and
suspension cylinders for mining dump trucks.
High driving smoothness is the most important
output parameter of the suspension, which is
recognised by all those who operate BELAZ
trucks, noting this as one of our numerous
advantages over competitors. In addition, our
pneumohydraulic suspension is reliable, durable
and easy to maintain.
We also devote a lot of time and effort to the
training of young people. Every year we employ
250-300 new staff. We organise work experience
internships for the students studying in the
universities of our country. Many of them then
return here to work. BELAZ also fully implements
a social package. It is important for us that each
of our workers feel their relevance but also live a
long and, most importantly, healthy life.
Q BELAZ in recent years is really moving more
onto the world stage in terms of sales and
presence in major mining nations. What
successes have you had so far?
A Over the past five years, BELAZ shipped
products worth a total of about $3 billion,
including more than 4,500 units of equipment.
Our equipment was delivered to 33 countries.
New markets were developed - Zimbabwe,
Morocco, Bangladesh and the Philippines. After a
five-year break, deliveries of BELAZ equipment to
Georgia were resumed, after an eight-year break
to Romania and after an eleven-year period to
Jordan.
Significant success was achieved in the
implementation of new models of dump trucks of
various payloads: 45 t trucks to Finland, 55 t to
Zimbabwe, 90 t to Vietnam and Mongolia, 110 and
130 t trucks to Indonesia, 130 t to Angola and
Zimbabwe (loaders, bulldozers, watering trucks
and recovery tractors were delivered to this
country for the first time), 180 t to Morocco, 220 t
to Ukraine, 240 t to South Africa, 360 and 450 t
trucks to Russia. The fleet of our customers in
Poland and the Czech Republic has been
replenished with new products of the company:
BELAZ-75454 dump trucks with Scania engine,
complying with Tier 4 Final, and the BELAZ-7555I
with a Liebherr engine.
Delivery in 2017 of 52 units of equipment in
Zimbabwe is one of the largest annual batches
sold to foreign countries, and the amount of
deliveries to Uzbekistan (260 in 2017-2018) is a
record for the whole long history of cooperation
with the mining companies of this country.
The cyclical development of the world mining
industry was strongly reflected in the results of
BELAZ operations, however, we managed not only
to preserve, but also significantly improve the
competitive position of the company among the
leading global manufacturers. For example, if in
2013 our share in the world market of dump
trucks with payload capacity of 90 t and above
was about 12%, by the end of 2017 it had already
exceeded 27%.
In the world market in the payload class of 130-
136 t, BELAZ is the absolute leader with a share of
about 80% in 2017, which is 2.5 higher than the
2013 level. Last year, almost half of world sales in
the payload capacity class of 220-240 t accounted
for BELAZ trucks. Sales of 90 t dump trucks are
steadily growing – over the past five years, the
share of the company in this class has increased
almost four times and is about 10% at the
moment.
Q How important is new technology and
innovation in terms of where you are going next
as a company?
A Development is only impossible without
constant innovation and the introduction of
advanced technologies. Back in 2011, we
launched a large-scale investment project for