Valley Longwall International Business Development president Chris Freer said despite growing competition and price pressure in China caused by the strengthening Australian dollar, Valley Longwall had secured multimillion dollar contracts with both new and existing customers over the past eight weeks.
The contracts cover delivery of eight new drilling systems and two new directional drilling services contracts totalling about 35,000 metres of in-seam directional drilling.
“I believe a number of important issues and challenges that faced us in the Chinese marketplace were overcome by Valley with some assistance from our agent over the months immediately preceding these latest sales,” Freer said.
“We have now established maintenance and service agreements with a number of our clients and are looking to engage all of our existing and future clients in these agreements. These allow us to assist the mines in achieving their production targets and ensure equipment is maintained to the levels recommended by the OEM with our input of spare parts and consumables.
“We have also strengthened our training and services base in China with the addition of more expat drillers and the employment of several drillers that Valley has trained locally.”
Freer said it was critical in the Chinese market to deliver on time, support operations and grow with the market.
Adding to the company's overseas growth story was Valley Longwall's first equipment delivery and services contract in Russia last week.
“This is an important part of our growth strategy and we hope that it will assist us in smoothing out the lumpiness in the current China market. We are also negotiating contracts elsewhere in Eastern Europe," Freer said.
To facilitate the growth in Eastern Europe, Valley Longwall recently signed an agency agreement with Biotop UK.
“With strong growth in the coal mining and resource sectors in China, Russia (including the former states of the USSR) and Eastern Europe, we see a very bright future for our company in this hemisphere," Freer said.
