HIGH PROFILE
IM’s Paul Moore meeting with XEMC Marketing
and Sales Director, Jimmy Ji in Xiangtan
is not only related to the market, the trucks are so
robust that they last a long time – at least 12-15
years and up to 80,000 hours. XEMC still has a
truck running from 30 years ago and even had a
special ceremony to celebrate the milestone.
Looking at the larger trucks specifically, two 300
t SF35100 trucks were built for Shenhua’s huge
Zhungeer Energy operations which include the Hei
Dai Gou and newer Haerwusu coal pits. XEMC still
owns the trucks with Zhungeer renting them based
on tonnes hauled per year. The model was first
developed in 2011 and has performed well at this
site where temperatures can fall to -400C in winter.
The truck has a fully welded structure with no large
castings which required a lot of in-house
engineering.
Of course the Chinese market for large haul
trucks is relatively limited to Zhungeer and a
handful of other sites such as a few other large
coal mines owned by China Coal (Pingshuo),
Yiminhe and Datong and then metallic operations
like Jiangxi Copper & the new Julong Copper in
Tibet; as well as a number of major iron ore mines
especially in Bayan'obo Mining District. Apart from
XEMC and NHL, there have been few other
deliveries, with exceptions such as MCC 200 t
trucks delivered to Jiangxi Copper plus some
XCMG, SANY and China Space Sanjiang Group
units, mainly in the Zhungeer complex. The limited
ultraclass market in China is partly due to the fact
that the market is very cost/price driven, and has
been suffering from sustained low coal prices as
well as government regulatory pressures relating
to emissions and environment.
Looking at the Zhungeer mines alone, it has 29
XEMC 200 t trucks that are owned, and two 300 t
XEMC trucks that are rented. This is common for
large trucks at this mine, it has a similar
arrangement with MCC for its 363 t truck (HMTK
600B) it has there as well as with XCMG’s 363 t
model (XDE400), China Space Sanjiang trucks and
74 International Mining | APRIL 2020
NHL trucks (rental on MT5500 and NTE
larger electric drive models like the
NTE360, which are both 330 t class, plus
owned mechanical drive models like the
TR100), and Sany SET230 (230 t), though
in general Sany up until now has
focussed on smaller class machines.
Zhungeer also has Komatsu 930E trucks
running.
The original drive for development of
300 t plus mining trucks in China was a
government push to have more large
trucks made domestically, where
Chinese OEMs received a funding boost
and certificate for their development.
Zhungeer has always been very open to
trials of “non-Komatsu” domestic OEM
large trucks. Even in 2017, the operation
was looking at using another 13 300 t
trucks though this has not yet
materialised. At Pingshuo, XEMC has
sold trucks to a contractor (220 t class) for
overburden haulage. Yiminhe has XEMC 108 t
trucks as well as eight 220 t SF33901 trucks, and
was actually the first operation to use them.
With the onset of a trade war with the USA this
seems to have made Zhungeer and other Chinese
mines nervous of buying US-made mining trucks
due to component supply uncertainty, so this is
one positive out there for the Chinese OEMs.
Future for XEMC
Jimmy Ji told IM that of course technology is a
focus going forward. Like NHL it is working on its
own autonomous truck that may start trials in
2020, though as stated elsewhere in this issue,
many mines are opting to partner with technology
companies like Vipioneers and Tage Idriver to
automate existing trucks, including XEMC models.
That aside, XEMC has also developed a hybrid
battery electric drive-diesel truck that saves about
15% in diesel costs. This is trialling with Zhungeer
and is 108 t class. Half of the gridbox has been
The XEMC 300 t truck, the SF35100
removed and replaced with batteries, which store
excess energy that is used during fully laden
haulage. When the truck is idled, the engine turns
off with the battery used for aircon etc. The hybrid
system was developed in house by XEMC’s own
research centre. Overseas, while it is tough in
competition terms, XEMC is still participating in
tenders in Chile, for example for 220 t/300 t
models.
Africa of course remains a big focus for Chinese
OEMs as many mines are Chinese owned in
countries like the DRC, Zambia and South Africa.
However, many of these mines suffer from low
cashflow and Chinese companies cannot match
finance packages offered by the likes of Komatsu,
Hitachi and Cat. That said, as investment becomes
harder to find in the West, the power of Chinese
banks is being seen so this situation is changing.
SANY, for example, has its SRT95 running at
copper mines in Zambia. IM
XEMC is a market leader in electric drive 100 t class trucks in China with its SF33901, of which it has
delivered well over 800 units