In 2025, the Chinese and global mining equipment industries stood at a crossroads of technological innovation and market restructuring. The trends of large-scale, intelligent, green, and unmanned operations were deeply intertwined, becoming the core engine driving industrial transformation. Multinational industry giants accelerated their deployment in mining technologies and solutions, continuously expanding their product strategies into emerging markets. Chinese mining equipment manufacturers rose rapidly, making continuous breakthroughs in areas such as complete sets of equipment, localization, and internationalization. The following is a summary of 20 landmark events with significant impact both domestically and internationally.
Top 10 Influential Events in China
On February 25, 2025, the domestic development project of the 300-ton mining truck by Northern Heavy Industries Group Co., Ltd. passed final acceptance, marking a major leap for China in the field of large mining trucks from technology import to independent innovation.
This model, with the localization of its powertrain system as its core, collaborates with component innovation and is equipped with a domestically produced electric drive system, achieving significant breakthroughs in several key technology areas and providing strong equipment support for ensuring national energy security and resource development. On April 12th, the world’s first 1000-meter-class vertical shaft hard rock full-face tunneling machine, “Iron Backbone,” rolled off the production line at the CRCC Heavy Industry Changsha Second Industrial Park. This is a model of collaborative innovation between industry, academia, research, and application, marking a significant step forward for my country in the field of ultra-deep vertical shaft tunneling equipment. It provides safer and more efficient basic equipment for deep mineral resource development and underground space utilization, enhancing my country’s global competitiveness in the field of deep underground space development. On May 15th, the global launch ceremony for the first 100 unmanned electric mining trucks, “Huaneng Ruichi,” was held in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia. XCMG delivered 100 ZNK95 pure electric unmanned mining trucks to Huaneng Yimin Open-pit Coal Mine for operation. XCMG stated that it will use the pure electric unmanned mining truck as a starting point to extend to a full range of equipment, creating a full-scenario zero-carbon unmanned mining solution. On May 16th, the “2025 Top 50 Chinese Mining Equipment Manufacturers” list was released in Changsha. The total sales of the top 50 companies reached 164.038 billion yuan, with Tiandi Technology, Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery, and XCMG ranking among the top ten. On September 26th, XCMG Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Australia’s Fords River Group for green mining equipment solutions. XCMG will provide 150-200 240-ton pure electric mining trucks to Fords River Group between 2028 and 2030, representing the largest green mining machinery export order signed by China. On the same day, Lingong Heavy Machinery held its first Global Customer Festival in Jinan, Shandong. At the event, the Lingong Heavy Machinery & Huawei Unmanned Driving Test Base was launched, and the nation’s first supercharged 1056 kWh unmanned mining truck, the UTE136, was released. On October 26th, Zoomlion’s Global Mining Machinery Carnival was held in Weinan, Shaanxi Province. The event showcased various electric excavators, pure electric wide-body mining trucks, and related energy replenishment equipment and mining auxiliary machinery. Several pure electric mining trucks and the first 100-ton hybrid wide-body truck, the ZT160HEV, were also launched. On October 28th, EasyControl Intelligent Driving, in collaboration with Tongli Heavy Industry, released the EQ100E distributed-power pure electric unmanned mining truck, marking a new era of “original vehicle design and restructured architecture” for unmanned mining transportation. On November 17th, the “2025 Top 20 Chinese Coal Mining Machinery Manufacturers Ranking” was released at the “2025 Intelligent Mining Development Conference (Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan)” held in Kunming, Yunnan. The total sales of the top 20 companies reached 114.51 billion yuan, with Tiandi Technology and Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery Group ranking first and second respectively. On December 30th, the Sany Heavy Equipment Supplier Conference was held in Shenyang. Chairman Jiang Qingbin proposed a “three-step” goal and five key tasks, including short-term domestic structural adjustment and overseas growth, medium-term restructuring over three years, and long-term goal of becoming a leader in integrated intelligent mining solutions.
Top 10 International Influential Events
From April 7th to 13th, Liebherr showcased two zero-emission mining solutions at the bauma trade fair in Munich, Germany: the T 264 all-electric driverless mining truck and the R 9400E electric excavator. The T 264, jointly developed by Liebherr and Fortmouth River, is equipped with an autonomous driving transport solution and supports both static and dynamic charging. Liebherr also demonstrated a smart dynamic charging solution concept and plans to deliver 360 of these trucks to Fortmouth River’s Australian mines by the end of 2030.
</ … On June 11, Allison Transmission announced the acquisition of Dana's off-highway business for approximately $2.7 billion. On July 3, Metso announced the completion of its acquisition of the Chinese screening equipment manufacturer Selm, establishing Selm Technology (Shenyang) Co., Ltd. to operate related businesses, continuing to focus on the research and development of screening equipment for the mining and aggregate industries. On July 8, Komatsu's 900-ton PC9000 mining hydraulic excavator made its global debut at Suncor Energy's Fort Hills oil sands mine in Canada, with a second unit scheduled for delivery in 2025. The PC9000 is currently the world's largest mining hydraulic excavator, capable of loading a 360-ton 980E ultra-large mining truck in five loads. On July 23, Komatsu, in collaboration with Swedish mining company Boliden, launched its first multi-fuel power series diesel overhead line auxiliary power supply mining truck, the 930E, undergoing a 12-month field trial at the Aitik copper mine in Galivare, Sweden. This mining truck adopts a modular design, allowing for flexible switching of power sources and integrating overhead power supply functionality, which helps reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. On September 17th, the 2025 Global Top 50 Mining Equipment Manufacturers ranking was released at the T50 Summit Asia Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia. The total sales of the top 50 companies reached US$76.655 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4.0%. Caterpillar and Komatsu maintained their top two positions, with 13 Chinese companies making the list, including Tiandi Technology and Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery Group, which entered the global top 10. On October 8th, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Rio Tinto signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the development of remote control technology for ultra-large hydraulic excavators. Over the next five years, the two parties will cooperate on related technologies to develop next-generation mining technologies and realize the practical application of autonomous driving technology for ultra-large hydraulic excavators. On October 12th, Caterpillar signed an agreement to acquire all shares of RPM Global Holdings, an Australian mining software provider, for approximately US$728 million. Following the transaction, RPM Global will be delisted, and its business will be integrated into Caterpillar Resources Group. On November 5th, 10 Komatsu HD785-7 mining dump trucks were delivered to a large mining company in Inner Mongolia, marking a key step forward for the mine in the construction of intelligent and efficient mines, injecting strong momentum into the development of mineral resources in Inner Mongolia. On November 19th, Caterpillar launched its first 70-ton 707 off-highway wide-body dump truck for emerging markets. This model will be phased in emerging markets starting in July 2025. Caterpillar will also continue to supply Shantui brand wide-body dump trucks to China and specific markets.
