While many Australian’s are familiar with Hancock Prospecting’s Roy Hill iron ore project – arguably one of Australia’s most high-profile developments in recent years – what many would be unaware of is the role that DHHI played in supplying critical machinery for the project’s success.
In many ways DHHI is as well-known in its namesake city of Dalian, Liaoning Province, and across China, as Hancock Prospecting’s Roy Hill operation is in Western Australia.
In fact, DHHI has earned the title of a ‘China famous brand’ – one of the most prestigious titles that the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China awards to business.
The now 10,000-person strong workforce at DHHI has been supplying the minerals and metallurgical sector for over 30 years with a diverse range of machines and services to more than 80 countries around the world, including America, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Brazil, India, Russia, and others .
However, when DHHI won the Roy Hill tender in August 2011, it was the biggest Australian contract the company had won, marking a new chapter in expansion for the group.
DHHI was successful in winning the critical bulk handling materials contract which required DHHI to supply Roy Hill with heavy machinery including two 14400t/h mine reclaimers, two 14500t/h port stackers, one 13700t/h fixed stacker, two 5000t/h mine stackers, one double-car dumper unloading system and one 12700t/h ship loader.
This was no ordinary contract. The Roy Hill contract is claimed to be one of the largest contracts for a stacker-reclaimer in the world. Even as China’s experts in the field of heavy machinery manufacturing, DHHI knew that this was going to require a lot of coordination.
Designed and manufactured between 2011 and 2015, DHHI spread the manufacturing work across its four state-of-the-art manufacturing bases – Wafangdian, Zhong Ge, Lusun and Quanshui – to ensure the highest quality products would be produced ahead of schedule to meet the Roy Hill construction time frames.
Despite being experienced hands in the game, the manufacture, delivery, installation and commissioning of the machines for Roy Hill was a monumental task for DHHI. The company made a significant investment in its human and material resources to finish the Roy Hill job successfully.
DHHI had to expedite the delivery of the nine machines – all creatively modularised to the maximum unit split size for transportation – to keep the project moving at the right pace and meeting the demands of the EPC contractors on site. The maximum time and cost for installation and commissioning at the site in Australia was saved to the benefit of the client.
The nine critical items were handed over in batches in the form of FOB Dalian Quanshui Terminal and FAS Dalian Port between September 2014 and April 2015, arriving on time and in good condition.
In the end, Hancock Prospecting was pleased with DHHI’s work and praised the high quality of the company’s equipment.
Hancock Prospecting chair Gina Rinehart and senior management personally visited DHHI in Dalian in March 2015 to attend the delivery ceremony for the last shipment of equipment and thank the company for all its effort.
“It is very difficult to imagine where the Roy Hill Project would be without the tremendous support, dedication and effort from the team at DHHI. You have all worked extremely hard to meet our requirements and ensured that the nine major machines DHHI has manufactured meet our project’s standards and importantly have been delivered on time,” Rinehart said.
In October the US$7.2 billion Roy Hill project produced nearly 3.2 mt of iron ore, which – according to local media reports – is nearly three-quarters of its 55 mtpa capacity.
Despite the international mining industry feeling pain in recent years, DHHI stated that machine exports have remained strong; contributing to almost half of company revenues, and foreign exchange earnings increased 10.4% in 2015.
By 2020, DHHI anticipates the group’s annual exports to double and reach US$1 billion – specifically by seizing opportunities provided by the Belt and Road Initiative in China, a program aimed at improving infrastructure connectivity in Asia, Europe and Africa. DHHI continues to keep developing and improving its standing in China and around the world. It is the operator of the largest metallurgical and bulk material handling machinery manufacturing complex in the country. DHHI has also received the accolade of the ‘largest crane design and manufacturing professional plant in China’ by the State Council.