Industrea Wins New China Contracts

Brisbane, Australia-based Industrea has strengthened its bonds with China after announcing $5 million in new contracts with the Jincheng Anthracite Mining Group, according to the Queensland Business Review.
The first contract is valued at $2.4 million, for an AMT directional drilling and methane gas draining system for the group’s Sihe Coal Mine in the Shanxi Province. The second is for two 50-tonne long-wall roof support carriers for supply to the Zhaozhuang coal mine, also in China’s Shanxi Province.

Jincheng Group is renowned for the production of high-quality anthracite coal, which has high volumes of in-seam gas associated with the mining process.

Industrea managing director and CEO, Robin Levison, says the new contracts enhance an already successful relationship which started back in 2003.

“Jincheng Group is one of China’s leading mining groups, and like other major miners in the country it places a high value on Industrea’s quality focus and commitment to the market,” he says. “China’s economy is showing stronger growth, while efforts by the authorities to improve safety at underground coal mines have also boosted sales of Industrea’s leading-edge directional drilling and methane gas drainage systems.”
The latest contracts are another vote of confidence in the ability of Australian manufacturing to compete on a global level, according to Levison.

“The state-of-the-art directional drilling system and roof support carriers will be built at AMT’s and IME’s separate manufacturing facilities located in New South Wales’ Central Coast and Hunter Valley,” Levison says. “With this AMT system, along with an earlier order in June 2008, Jincheng Group will now be operating eleven of AMT’s directional drilling and methane gas drainage systems throughout China.”

Jincheng Group produces around 40 million tonnes of coal a year, with the group’s Sihe coal mine accounting for 10 million tonnes and 8 million tonnes produced by the Zhaozhuang mine.

“The size of Jincheng group’s overall operations present significant opportunities for further sales for the 2009/10 financial year and beyond, based on the strength of the relationship between the two companies,” Levison says. “The recent establishment of our product support centre in the country is already paying dividends in repeat sales. We anticipate further new business in China as we build a solid order book for our market-leading mining safety and productivity equipment in the new fiscal year.”