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Shenhua placed the order during the first week of this month and a staged delivery of the equipment will commence mid-2006.
The shearer order comprised two 7LS6 with 750kW ranging arms and 2.7m drums capable of cutting seam height up to 5.5m. The deal also included three 7LS2A medium height shearers for seams of 2-2.5m.
Joy will also deliver a 7LS2A shearer to be held as a spare machine by Joy on a service exchange contract deal.
The Armoured Face Conveyor purchase included two 48mm AFCs, one 250m long and one 375m long. The 375m AFC is believed to be the longest that has been supplied to China to date.
Traditionally Shenhua’s longwall face widths have been around the 250m mark, though the company installed its first 300m-wide longwall face three weeks ago.
Continuous miners on order included three 12CM15s – the standard Shenhua machine. Three low-height continuous miners – the 14Cm15 – were also ordered for cutting below 2m. These are also believed to be new to Shenhua.
On the shuttle car front, Shenhua ordered eight standard medium-height machines and four low-height machines.
Joy boasts a long and successful relationship with Shenhua which began in the early 1990s.
At the Credit Suisse First Boston Global Mining Equipment conference last month, Joy global chief John Hanson said China was the company’s biggest single opportunity.
“It is a long-term growth engine for our business,” Hanson said.
“At the pace of activity that is going on today our business in China will be at a level of half a billion dollars a year [US] by the time we get to the end of this decade.
“That clearly presents a growth opportunity for us but more importantly that conversion from low-productivity mining to high-productivity mining in China is something that is continuous regardless of where the global economic growth is.
“This provides us with further stability for future cycles,” he said.
Shenhua is China's largest coal company and produces about 60Mtpa. In 2004 the company reported sales revenue of 44.8 billion yuan ($US5.5 billion).
In June the company made its $US2.95 billion initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
