The 30-tonne Komatsu HM300 was launched onto the market in 2003 and, with its powerful 248kW engine and advanced Komatsu traction control system, proved its worth in all kinds of heavy duty applications.

The thousandth unit was delivered in December to Imerys, the French building materials organisation, at its Croix-Gérard quarry in Poigny, France, along with a PC360 hydraulic excavator.

The special decoration on the bonnet of the truck, which you can see in the photos here, is the Japanese character for the number 1,000.

“We are in clay quarries, with slippery ground and sometimes steep tracks” says Imerys operations manager Gérald Bihan. “We really needed trucks that have this all-terrain capability so we went for an articulated HM300, which has all the characteristics required for our extraction, under our conditions.”

Over the years, Komatsu has provided Imerys with numerous machines for its many sites around France, mainly rigid dumpers, dozers, wheeled loaders and excavators. The two companies strenthened this partnership was further strengthened with an agreement protocol signed in 2020.