On 10 September, reporters learned from NHI that the first self-developed 350-tonne heavy-duty crawler transporter for open-pit mines has successfully completed full-load commissioning and passed acceptance by an international client in one go. The equipment is to be delivered to a century-old European leader in mining equipment and deployed for a large-scale mining project in South America. This marks the first export of China’s self-developed high-end heavy-duty crawler transporters for open-pit mines to the high-end European and American markets, shattering the long-standing monopoly held by overseas enterprises over the global high-end mining transport equipment market. The successful overseas delivery of the heavy-duty crawler transporter stands as a solid achievement of NHI’ commitment to independent innovation and breakthroughs in core technologies.

Drawing on its century-old heritage in heavy industry, NHI has consistently adhered to the strategic orientation of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology. Focusing on the high-end equipment manufacturing track, it continues to tackle industrial technical bottlenecks and fill gaps in domestic industries, achieving all-round breakthroughs across core areas including metallurgy, mining, tunnel boring and bulk material handling. With continuously iterating innovation momentum, it shoulders the responsibility of manufacturing national landmark equipment and fuels the high-quality development of China’s equipment manufacturing industry.

Delving into the Major Equipment

Multi-pronged Efforts to Break Technical Barriers

Equipment manufacturing industry forms the foundation of the real economy, and large complete sets of equipment serve as a key benchmark for measuring industrial capability. Rooted in industrial development, NHI has strived relentlessly to break down overseas technical barriers, achieving leaps from following to keeping pace with, and then leading peers in multiple niche sectors.

In the field of metallurgical equipment, NHI independently developed the world’s largest 5.5-metre plate shearing machine for medium and heavy plates, filling a domestic gap and ending long-standing overseas technological monopoly. Relevant achievements were selected for Made in China "14th Five-Year Plan" Achievement Exhibition and displayed at the National Museum of China. The 5.2 m × 110 m large rotary kiln for alumina clinker has been developed, addressing the shortage of key large-scale alumina production equipment in China and supporting the green transition of the metallurgical industry.

A complete product portfolio has been established for mining equipment. NHI has developed a series of products including the 44.0 m × 12.2 m semi-autogenous mill and 42.4 m × 8.2 m ball mill. The self-developed MLL3360 spiral vertical mill is the largest model of its kind in China. It delivers 30% to 50% energy savings compared with conventional equipment and boasts a single-unit processing capacity of up to 556 tonnes per hour. Equipped with variable frequency and intelligent control technologies, it has become the preferred equipment for large-scale mining projects worldwide. Tunnel boring equipment has repeatedly set new records. The Endeavour hard rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) set a world record for the longest single-machine tunnelling distance of 26.521 kilometres. The Heavenly Craftsman deep shaft reaming boring machine has twice revised industrial standards and broken industry records four times. China’s first QJL4555 full-section potash mine mining machine was shipped to an overseas mine site for underground trial excavation and mining. It withstood high-temperature and highly corrosive operating conditions, marking a breakthrough in the overseas industrial application of potash mining and excavation equipment. Through joint research by the R&D team, research institutes and industrial chain partners, core components such as main bearings and cutters for shield machines have achieved domestic independence and controllability. The 3.53-metre pumped storage TBM reaches a domestic localization rate of over 95%, with construction efficiency more than double that of the traditional drill-and-blast method, strongly supporting the construction of national hydropower projects.

In the field of bulk material handling equipment, NHI has taken the lead in formulating two industrial standards, namely Scraper Reclaimers and Bridge-type Bucket-wheel Reclaimers. The 65-meter large-span fully explosion-proof scraper reclaimer supports multi-machine co-rail operation and enclosed intelligent operation. The self-moving circular stackers have been exported to Japan, and the bridge-type bucket-wheel blending reclaimers have been put into operation in Saudi Arabia. These domestically manufactured equipment have successfully entered the global market, breaking the long-term market monopoly of foreign brands.

Advancing Digital-Intelligent Integrated Transformation

Traditional Heavy Industry Moves toward High-End Smart Manufacturing

While developing standalone major equipment, NHI presses ahead with digital and intelligent transformation, extending heavy equipment manufacturing from single-unit development to full-process intelligent control. The enterprise independently developed an unattended intelligent platform for stacker-reclaimers. Leveraging multi-source data collection, intelligent algorithms and remote control technologies, it has deployed the industry’s first market-oriented intelligent stockyard management system. The complete system enables unmanned operations throughout material stacking, reclaiming and conveying, cutting costs and boosting efficiency to drive the green and intelligent upgrading of the bulk material handling sector.

Innovation continues to deliver results in general-purpose equipment. The high-efficiency turn-back open-set dual-purpose double car dumper solves the tipping challenge for railway bulk cargo containers. Breaking the operating height limit of conventional equipment, it can unload containers without decoupling railcars, effectively addressing the long-standing industry problem of low efficiency in railway bulk material transportation. To meet national strategic demands for deep-earth engineering, the enterprise has developed a 5 m × 5 m × 5 m geological model long-duration high-load loading system and built a world-class physical simulation test platform for deep engineering hazards, providing critical hardware support for research on deep underground projects.

Drawing on the industry-university-research collaborative innovation mechanism, NHI integrates domestic and overseas research resources to develop complete sets of open-pit mining equipment. Since 2026, NHI has secured many orders for large spreaders. The 350-tonne heavy-duty crawler transporter has been successfully exported to Europe, marking that domestically manufactured heavy open-pit mining equipment has joined the competition in the global high-end market.

Behind these landmark achievements lies a continuously operating innovation system rooted in frontline production. Following mixed-ownership reform, NHI has steadily optimized its R&D management mechanism, maintained increased R&D investment, built multi-level innovation platforms, and formed an integrated innovation chain covering “R&D, technical tackling and achievement commercialization”. The enterprise fully respects the leading role of R&D teams in innovation and encourages technicians to carry out process improvement, equipment iteration and commercialization of research outcomes. In recent years, the company has obtained more than a hundred patents and software copyrights, with dozens of research projects industrialized.

Innovation is not confined to laboratories. Through platforms such as staff technical innovation competitions and on-site task forces, the enterprise extends innovation activities to workshops and assembly sites, fully tapping the creative potential of frontline skilled workers. Multiple innovations originating from production lines have won provincial and municipal innovation awards. An enterprise-wide culture of “innovation by everyone, innovation in every task, innovation in everywhere” has gradually taken shape. From a century-old factory to an innovation hub for high-end equipment, NHI’ development epitomizes the self-reliance of China’s heavy equipment industry. Generations of heavy industry craftsmen have stayed rooted in equipment manufacturing, overcoming one tough technical challenge after another and building one landmark equipment after another.