When the global trenchless community gathers in Auckland this October, one of the world’s foremost names in underground construction will be there. China Railway Engineering Equipment Group (CREG) is proud to be a sponsor of International No-Dig Auckland 2026, held at the New Zealand International Convention Centre on 28–29 October.
CREG is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of tunnel boring machines, operating 17 production bases with an annual output of more than 300 machines. From its headquarters in Zhengzhou, China, CREG has supplied TBMs ranging from 2 to 18 metres in diameter for all ground conditions — hard rock, soft soil and complex geology — and its machines have excavated over 5,000 kilometres of tunnels across metro, rail, highway, water, mining and municipal projects worldwide.
A growing Australasian footprint
That global reach extends firmly into Australasia, where CREG machines are at work on some of the region’s most ambitious projects. In Sydney, two 15.7-metre slurry shield machines are currently launching on the Western Harbour Tunnel Project — among the largest TBMs ever to operate in Australia. In Melbourne, two 7.28-metre EPB machines are under assembly, with a further two due to arrive before the end of the year. These join the 11-metre-class hard rock TBM supplied for Snowy Hydro 2.0 — the largest-diameter hard rock TBM China has ever exported. Worldwide, CREG has exported more than 140 TBMs to 36 countries and regions, from Singapore and South Korea to Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Denmark, backed by responsive local technical support and after-sales service.
Trenchless technology at its core
For the No-Dig audience, CREG’s story is about far more than mega-diameter machines. Pipe jacking has long been one of the company’s core R&D product lines, and its portfolio now spans circular, rectangular, earth pressure balance, hard-rock slurry, U-shaped, cross-passage and combined modular pipe jacking machines. These are deployed across water supply and drainage, gas, power and communications pipelines, utility tunnels, urban underpasses, underground car parks and metro cross passages, with pipe jacking equipment already exported to Singapore, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. CREG has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of what trenchless methods can achieve, with world-first innovations such as the horseshoe-shaped TBM and the world’s largest sectional rectangular pipe jacking machine.
Two recent projects show what that capability delivers in practice.
In June 2026, CREG set a new world record for the longest single drive in pipe jacking engineering. At the Ligang Water Plant in Nantong — which will supply 1.2 million cubic metres of Yangtze River raw water per day once complete — two 2.6-metre CREG pipe jacking machines drove twin intake pipelines from shore to the centre of the Yangtze, achieving a maximum single jacking distance of 3,214.96 metres. Where conventional large-diameter steel pipe jacking is typically limited to around 2,000 metres per drive, CREG’s machines tunnelled continuously 43 metres below the riverbed through soft silty sand, beneath a flood levee and an active navigation channel, with zero damage to flood control structures and zero disruption to shipping. Breakthroughs in cutterhead wear resistance and detection, ultra-high-pressure sealing and drag-reducing slurry systems made the record drive possible — establishing a replicable model for long cross-river and cross-sea pipelines carrying water, sewage, oil or gas.
Meanwhile in Hangzhou, CREG’s 3.29-metre cross-passage TBM has been used to mechanise the construction of five cross passages on the Hangzhou Airport Rail Express, boring between running tunnels at depths of up to 40 metres and water pressures of 5.4 bar. Compared with conventional methods such as ground freezing and hand mining, the mechanised approach delivers faster construction, consistently high-quality structures and a safer, more controllable working environment — a solution of direct relevance to metro and rail projects across Australasia.
Underpinning all of this is sustained investment in research and development, including independent breakthroughs in core components such as main bearings, high-capacity hydraulic pumps, seals and frequency converters, and intelligent energy-saving systems that automatically match excavation parameters to ground conditions.
See CREG in Auckland
New Zealand’s challenging geology, environmental values and growing pipeline of water, wastewater and transport infrastructure make it a natural home for trenchless technology — and a fitting host for the first International No-Dig ever held in the country. CREG looks forward to meeting engineers, contractors, utilities and asset owners from across the region to discuss how proven, customised tunnelling and trenchless equipment can help deliver their next project.
Visit the CREG team at International No-Dig Auckland, 28–29 October 2026, at the New Zealand International Convention Centre.