The orders were placed by two American customer orders and one major order from Chinese group, Shenhua for 491 shields. This is the largest single order in the history of the subsidiary of Essen-based RAG Coal International AG.

On November 28, 2003, three contracts were signed in Peking with Shenhua International covering the supply of shields with a range of vertical adjustment of up to 5.5 m for use in thick seams.

This is DBT’s ninth consecutive face support project win in China, eight of which were placed by the Shenhua group. To date DBT has produced about 1,500 shields for the Chinese market of which 1,363 shields have been supplied to Shenhua. In the last four years, the Shenhua group has ordered all its longwall shields exclusively from DBT.

According to Erich Wendling, President of the DBT Management, Shenhua has become the most important customer worldwide for DBT in the ‘thick-seam shield’ segment and with the new order has further consolidated its position as DBT's key customer in the Chinese market.

Based on a production record of around 65 million tons of coal in 2003 the Shenhua group has set itself a 100 million ton production target for 2005. The long-term goal planned to be achieved as of 2015 is for a production of around 200 million tons.

“The large individual order from our long-standing Chinese customer can be seen as a strong vote of confidence in the quality of our products,” Wendling said.

“It is also a clear indication that DBT in pursuing its single-minded quality-based strategy aimed at meeting the customer needs for ever increasing efficiency and safety, has been following the right avenue in the international longwall markets.”