China’s first independently developed super-large hydraulic pile hammer passed its testing stage in April, breaking the monopoly of foreign countries with such machines, cctv.com reported on May 8.

The pile hammer, with a height of 22 meters and weight of 430 tons, was developed and produced by the Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Co., Ltd.

For a long time, super-large hydraulic pile hammers, which are indispensable in offshore operations, were monopolized by German and Dutch enterprises. However, after seven years of effort in research and overcoming technological difficulties, the monopoly has been broken by the Chinese enterprise.

The China-made pile hammer not only boasts outstanding performance, but also has an advantage in price and after service, according to the Chinese enterprise.

For example, in the past, China had to import such machines from foreign enterprises. If something went wrong, the maintenance usually took about half a year meaning the project progress was delayed.

However, the independently developed machine is not only conveniently maintained, but is also 30 percent cheaper than imported ones on the premise of meeting the international standard, said a client of the enterprise.

The enterprise got its first order of the pile hammer in 2016. In the same year, the machine of 1,900 kilojoules was listed as a demonstration project of marine economic innovation and development during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period (2016-2020) by experts with the State Oceanic Administration and the Tianjin Oceanic Administration.

Currently, the Chinese enterprise is stepping up efforts to develop a hydraulic pile hammer of 3,000 kilojoules in order to catch up with and surpass the advanced world level.