Business news

MINSK, 13 November (BelTA) – The Belarusian automobile engineering company BelAZ will resume truck deliveries to China, BelTA learned from Alexander Zuyenok, Head of the Non-CIS Sales Department of the company.

BelAZ representatives took part in the 1^st China International Import Expo in Shanghai. A contract for delivering a haul truck with the carrying capacity of 360 tonnes was signed then. The truck will be used to transport coal in an open pit in China’s north.

The executive noted: “It will be the first shipment to the Chinese market since 2013. If the haul truck does well and performs up to spec, another 13 trucks with the same carrying capacity may be shipped to China. The pause in haul truck deliveries had been caused by the global crisis in the mining industry and the modernization of coal mining enterprises in China.”

At present China uses 485 BelAZ vehicles. Those are mainly haul trucks with the carrying capacity varying from 30 to 240 tonnes.

During the expo in Shanghai BelAZ also signed a memorandum of strategic partnership and cooperation with China’s leading engine manufacturing company Weichai Group. The Belarusian company has already made the first haul truck powered by a Chinese engine and able to carry 90 tonnes. Factory tests of the vehicle will be finished soon. The company intends to use Weichai engines later on to power haul trucks with the carrying capacity of 130 and 220 tonnes. The trucks will be intended for the Chinese market.

The memorandum with Weichai Group gives BelAZ the ability to set up a joint venture in the future. “We can supply chassis to China in order to allow some manufacturing localization. Plans for full adaptation to requirements of the Chinese market have been made,” said Alexander Zuyenok.

Based in Zhodino, Minsk Oblast, the public joint-stock company (OAO) BelAZ is the world’s leading manufacturer of haul trucks with a large carrying capacity and an extremely large carrying capacity. The company also makes other kinds of heavy transport vehicles for the mining industry and the civil engineering industry. The company accounts for one third of the global market of high-capacity haul trucks. In January-October 2018 BelAZ trucks were shipped to more than 20 countries.