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Reuters reported that CiDi anticipates overseas deployments will increase this year as the company moves beyond its dominant position in China. Hu said the firm has fitted partially automated excavators in Australia and is set for a more substantial rollout there in coming months. The executive added that CiDi is actively seeking contracts in the Middle East, South America and Europe while competing with rivals such as Fujian-based EACON to deliver self-driving trucks and ancillary equipment that lower labour and fuel expenses and enhance operational safety.
According to Hu, overseas sales are projected to account for a double-digit percentage of total revenue in 2027, rising from a low single-digit contribution at present. CiDi, which completed its Hong Kong listing in late 2025, recorded revenue that more than doubled last year to 884.8 million yuan, equivalent to $130.6 million. Deployments and revenue within China surged 374 percent in 2025, well ahead of the broader industry’s 73 percent expansion, he stated.
The company is advancing robotic systems for explosive hauling and drilling operations that Hu characterised as very dangerous and very precise. “Some of our trucks have robotic arms now,” he said. “Is it a truck? Or is it a robot? We’re blurring the lines between the two.” Explosive-handling units are scheduled to enter service in the third quarter of this year, with drilling robots following in early 2027 at sites in Shanxi and Inner Mongolia provinces where oversight has tightened after a gas explosion killed 82 workers at a Shanxi coal mine in May.
Hu told Reuters that CiDi supplies hardware and software directly to mine operators under an asset-light structure that delegates manufacturing to partner equipment makers. The firm holds a distribution agreement with British mining equipment producer MMD Group and is pursuing further collaborations, including with Chinese mine operators, to accelerate its international expansion. A single remote supervisor can oversee around 100 trucks, with Hu noting that this monitoring ratio has potential to increase substantially.
At an open-pit quarry in Jurong, Jiangsu province, operated by cement producer TCC Group Holdings, 12 fully electric unmanned trucks autonomously transport limestone to crushing stations while managing their own recharging cycles. CiDi described the installation as the first fully electric and driverless mining truck fleet in operation. Its worldwide fleet now totals more than 1,700 vehicles operating at 30 quarries and coal mines, the large majority located in China.
GlobalData data placed China at the forefront of autonomous mining truck adoption with 2,090 units in service as of July 2025, representing over half the global fleet of 3,832 vehicles at that time. Roughly 10 percent of mining trucks in China now operate without drivers, according to industry assessments that align with CiDi’s internal figures. Coordinating simultaneous movements across fleets as large as 500 trucks at major coal operations constitutes a substantial technological barrier that forms a core competitive advantage, Hu said.
A Mordor Intelligence assessment found the automated mining equipment sector expanding from $79.26 billion in 2025 to $88.12 billion in 2026 and forecast to reach $142.3 billion by 2031 at a compound annual growth rate of 10.06 percent. Hu emphasised that CiDi’s fleet-management capabilities position it to capture a larger portion of this growth both domestically and abroad. The company’s pipeline includes continued refinement of robotic applications tailored to specialised mining tasks across varied geological settings.
