HIGH PROFILE
The pride of XEMC, one of its four SF33901
230 t trucks at Rio Tinto Tom Price iron ore mine
Xiangtan’s truck excellence
Paul Moore met with Chinese mining truck major XEMC in
its home city of Xiangtan south of Changsha, hearing the
remarkable story of its fleet in the Pilbara plus its plans
for growth in China and abroad
he mining truck business of Xiangtan
Electrical Manufacturing Corporation
(XEMC) is just one arm of a much larger
company that is also one of China’s main players
in the supply of electric wind turbines. XEMC has
a long history having been founded in 1936, as a
manufacturer of electric motors and generators.
Xiangtan is a growing city just to the south of the
major Chinese hub of Changsha. The company
has been responsible for many important
electrical milestones in the country. In 1951, the
first HV motor in China was independently
developed by XEMC and, in 1958, it launched the
country’s first electric locomotive. In 1964, it built
the country’s first electric underground metro
train. In 1982, it succeeded in independently
developing the first sets of large vertical oblique
flow pumps in China. In 2004, it launched the
country’s first hybrid electric bus and, in 2007, the
first 2 MW direct drive type permanent magnet
synchronous wind power generator in China was
developed by XEMC. In 2010, the first permanent
magnet 5 MW domestic direct drive offshore wind
generator set from XEMC successfully rolled off
the production line.
As regards mining trucks, while it doesn’t hold
the top spot in market share among Chinese
OEMs, it has certainly made an impact. The major
turning points: first 108 t DC electric drive truck in
China launched 1974; 1985: the first DC electric
T
72 International Mining | APRIL 2020
drive 154 t truck in China; 2008: the first AC drive
220 t truck in China and finally, in 2011, the first
300 t AC drive mining truck in China. XEMC also
makes the point that in over 30 years it has been
the only all Chinese-owned major mining truck
player and mining truck designer, with NHL having
had its Terex involvement & investment.
Then it was the first company to export a large
mining truck fleet to a Tier 1 miner outside of
China – namely a fleet of four 230 t SF33901
trucks to Rio Tinto’s Mount Tom Price iron ore
mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara, in 2012. A
dedicated subsidiary was also set up in Australia
to support the trucks and to develop additional
overseas sales, known as XEHD Australia Pty Ltd,
based in Belmont, WA.
This Tom Price order was no mean feat – and
not just from the point of view of having exported
them – it has managed to maintain and support
them for eight years from a dedicated parts and
service centre and has had permanent staff in
Australia throughout. IM has been to Tom Price
and heard direct from Rio Tinto that the trucks are
a valued and well performing part of its fleet
alongside the rest of the fleet which consists of
Komatsu 930Es.
These Tom Price trucks utilise MTU 16V 4000
C11 engines which, according to XEMC, have
exhibited good fuel efficiency and were also
derated from 2,700 to 2,500 HP as the full power
was not required for this particular application.
Lastly, XEMC recently signed a new contract for
delivery of four 108 t trucks to a coal mining
customer in Mongolia, which will be its first
exports of this truck class outside of China.
The Tom Price story
The four SF33901 trucks arrived at Port Hedland in
2012 and were transported to site. Rio Tinto
teams assisted with adjusting the trucks from
Chinese ISO standards to Australian standards
which included extra handrails, plus covers for the
engine, fan etc. There were some teething
problems in the first couple of years but these
were all soon resolved including upgrading the
operator cab and controls, adding a hydraulically
controlled diagonal ladder, changing filters to
IP68 standard & increasing waterproofing of the
truck for the wet season. Many of these
improvements were then applied to trucks sold in
the Chinese market. The truck is well liked at the
mine. XEMC says that its suspension set-up has
had a lot of positive feedback from operators. The
truck has an “A” frame making for a more flexible
design and softer suspension. In eight years no
major chassis cracks have been reported.
The four Tom Price 230 t units lined up along with one Komatsu 930E