Recently, a batch of customized mining equipment from Hunan Guangming Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was successfully exported to Africa, attracting widespread attention. Zhang Jianguo, Deputy General Manager of Guangming Heavy Machinery, excitedly stated in an interview, “Our revenue in 2025 is projected to reach nearly 150 million yuan, a figure close to the company’s peak revenue 10 years ago.” Who would have thought that this company almost went bankrupt? Guangming Heavy Machinery is a private heavy equipment manufacturing enterprise with over 30 years of history, primarily providing complete sets of equipment for industries such as mining, wind power generation, and chemicals. It was once recognized as a “well-known non-public enterprise in Zhuzhou City.” In 2008, it purchased 200 mu of land in Zhuzhou County (now Lukou District of Zhuzhou City) to build a new production base. The new base was fully completed in 2014, with a factory area of over 70,000 square meters, making it the largest single factory in Zhuzhou at the time. The company also introduced new technologies and invested heavily in purchasing a large number of new equipment. However, affected by the downturn in the heavy machinery industry, its business volume declined year by year, and in 2018, it became insolvent and filed for bankruptcy with the Lukou District Court.
However, investigations revealed that Guangming Heavy Machinery’s products are of high quality and have a prominent competitive advantage in the industry. Even with its heavy debt burden, its annual output value is around 60 million yuan, it enjoys a good reputation in the industry, plays an important role in promoting regional industrial development, and consistently pays around 10 million yuan in taxes annually, providing employment for over 300 people. The main leaders of Lukou District attached great importance to this, establishing a special working group and innovatively building a “government-court linkage” restructuring framework involving the district government and the district court. They coordinated with tax, human resources, and other departments to intervene simultaneously, striving to “clear debts, continue production, and maintain the workforce.” In 2023, the company changed from liquidation to restructuring, “coming back to life,” and was even selected as a typical case in the national series of cases protecting the property rights of private enterprises and the rights of entrepreneurs.
In terms of technological innovation, Guangming Heavy Machinery is also relentless. On January 4th, during a follow-up visit, reporters observed workers processing a tunnel boring machine (TBM) shield with a diameter of 14.5 meters. To solve the processing challenges posed by the large diameter of the TBM shell’s ring, the company independently developed a special lathe for shield bodies, breaking through the bottleneck of one-time processing dimensions for large TBMs and filling a gap in the processing of ultra-large special equipment by private enterprises. Huang Can, Minister of the Comprehensive Department, stated that even during the bankruptcy reorganization phase, long-term customers continued to choose Guangming Heavy Machinery because of the superior quality of its products. The company also continues to strengthen its technical talent pool, engaging in in-depth industry-university-research cooperation with universities, and has added eight new patents in the past two years, becoming a core strategic supplier for China Railway Construction Corporation. Facing increasingly fierce competition in the domestic construction machinery industry, Guangming Heavy Machinery has turned its attention to overseas markets. Through the facilitation of an overseas chamber of commerce, Chairman Hu Hongxia led her technical team to Laos for an inspection tour, venturing more than 300 meters underground to guide product development based on the extreme local environment. This dedicated attitude and pursuit of excellence impressed a global mining equipment giant in Shanghai, ultimately securing the company’s exclusive supplier qualification in Hunan. The cooperation with this industry giant has had a demonstrative effect, with domestic and international orders steadily increasing, and revenue expected to approach its historical peak in 2025. However, the restructured Guangming Heavy Machinery still faces lingering credit issues, causing significant difficulties in financing. The Lukou District Committee and Government attached great importance to the matter, establishing a special working group to analyze the root causes of the company’s damaged credit record and clarifying a three-step repair path: “debt collection—credit deregulation—system reconstruction.” Through promoting diversified debt resolution solutions, as of November 2025, the company had cumulatively repaid over 71 million yuan in various debts, fully settling outstanding employee wages, taxes, and late payment fees, significantly improving the repayment rate of ordinary debts. The special working group also coordinated with various parties to negotiate repayment matters and rebuilt the company’s credit through the “Credit China” system, striving to complete the credit repair of Guangming Heavy Machinery in the first half of 2026, clearing obstacles for the company’s continued development.
