China has built a huge 700-ton super digger that can shovel 60 tons of material in a single bucket.

This excavator, known as the ‘Shenzhou First Dig’, has two diesel engines with 1700 horsepower, the equivalent to nearly 30 family cars.

At the same time, the excavator can shovel up to 60 tons of materials in one bucket. Meanwhile, the maximum digging depth is 18.7 metres, the equivalent of a seven-storey building, according to the news site Baidu.

A few years ago, large diggers of over 200 tons had to be imported from abroad. In around a decade, China has managed to start producing its own and the super-large excavators are now between 200 and 700 tons.

It has reduced the country’s reliance on imports of such heavy-duty vehicles from Germany, Japan and the US.

The country’s first 700-ton super hydraulic excavator which has now been unveiled was designed and built in China, and has been put to work at the Heidaigou Coal Mine near the city of Ordos in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia.

According to reports, the new digger was produced at a factory in the city of Xuzhou in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, and is proving to be a big asset on site.