OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2011. DTEK has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SANY Heavy Equipment Co, Ltd (China) for supplies of state-of-the-art mining equipment and coal extraction technologies to Ukraine.

The signed documents sets out the priority areas for cooperation between DTEK and SANY Heavy Equipment Co, Ltd such as supply of equipment and technologies, provision of aftersales service and maintenance and search for optimal ways of financing. By 2014 it is planned to deliver sets of extraction equipment for two mines and several dozens of tunneling equipment units by SANY Heavy Equipment. The new machines will be deployed at mines of Rovenkianthracite and Sverdlovanthracite, DTEK's counterparties under financial aid agreements.

“Speedy development of DTEK's coal production business allows us to choose the best mining equipment by leading Ukrainian and foreign suppliers. Each mine of DTEK is unique due to characteristics of seam geology and thickness, coal grades and mine rock composition, so we choose the most suitable equipment for each mine. The basis of our equipment stock is the tunneling units and mining equipment by Mining machines SPC. To solve specific technological tasks DTEK also purchases imported equipment. The Company’s mines are already using Czech and German made equipment. Currently we are receiving supplies of tunneling equipment from the leader in heavy engineering of Asia and the Pacific region, Chinese SANY Heavy Equipment. Our shareholder personally controls the improvement of occupational safety in DTEK's mines, and it is one of the strong arguments in favor of introducing hi-tech automated tunneling units ensuring the maximum safety at high productivity,” Yuriy Ryzhenkov, DTEK's COO, said.

“Ukraine has unique mining conditions with complicated seam geology and thin seams. It is an honor for us to enter the Ukrainian market cooperating with DTEK, the leader of the country’s energy and fuel sector, and to offer our expertise in thin deep seam development. Using machines and technologies of SANY Heavy Equipment DTEK will be able to reduce production costs and step up coal production. This cooperation gives DTEK a possibility to attract financing from Chinese banks on terms favorable for the Ukrainian party,” said Zhou Wanchun, General Director of SANY Heavy Equipment and Deputy President of SANY Group.