BEIJING, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Chinese autonomous driving

startup CiDi expects to turn profitable next year with its

offering of software and services focused on mining and factory

applications and is willing to consider an IPO among various

funding options, its CEO said.

"We're willing to explore various financing avenues

including an IPO," Albert Hu, CEO of CiDi, which was valued at

$1.2 billion in its last private funding round, told Reuters.

Most Chinese firms are pressing ahead with autonomous

driving for open roads by introducing vehicles such as

robotaxis.

But CiDi, whose backers include the venture capital unit of

Baidu ( BIDU ), Sequoia China and Legend Holdings ( LGNRF ),

remains focused on industrial-grade haulage - areas such as

mines and factories where the economics of replacing drivers are

clearer and rollout is not dependent on wider regulatory

approval.

In an open-pit mine owned by Taiwan Cement Corp at Jurong in

eastern China's Jiangsu province, CiDi deploys a fully electric

driverless mining fleet that Hu said "has been operating around

the clock for 600 days".

"The labour (cost) savings are probably up to 95%," Hu said,

adding an unmanned mining truck could save up to three drivers

on an eight-hour shift per day.

The added investment in equipping the mining trucks with an

intelligent and autonomous system can pay off in just 18 months,

and the return could be much faster in higher-labour cost

economies such as Australia, said Ma Wei, co-founder and vice

chairman of CiDi.

Forecasting a $100 billion global market in autonomous

trucking in closed-loop industrial applications by 2030, the

autonomous trucking unicorn, with partners in Saudi Arabia and

Indonesia, believes it can keep a "double-digit" share of the

global market for autonomous mining deployments.

Its competitors include Beijing-based Senior Auto,

Hefei-based Tage Idriver and Suzhou Zhito Technology.

COMMERCIAL TRUCKING

Instead of running its own factories, CiDi relies on truck

manufacturers such as Sinotruk which license their

manufacturing capabilities for CiDi-branded trucks.

While autonomous trucking is growing fast in mining and

other hazardous environments due to safety considerations, it

faces challenges, including social acceptance, for broader

usage.

There are about 17 million truck drivers in the world's

second largest economy where ride-hailing and taxi drivers fret

as thousands of robotaxis hit Chinese streets.

CiDi benefits from Chinese regulations that encourage

industrial use EVs and intelligent technologies. In a guideline

released in September last year, the transport ministry

encouraged the adoption of lidar and other sensor technologies

as part of a goal to digitise the road transport system by 2035.

"We have seen many applications involving autonomous

heavy-duty commercial vehicles using lidars, including

autonomous trucks for logistics, autonomous driving tractors at

airports, and autonomous forklifts," said Wei Zhang, vice

president of APAC Business at Chinese lidar sensor maker Hesai

Technology.

Exports of Chinese-made autonomous commercial vehicles could

reach "several billion yuan per annum by 2026", according to

Arjen Rao, an analyst at China-based LeadLeo Research Institute.

But the road to overseas expansion could be bumpy amid

mounting Western concerns over Chinese technologies, with the

U.S. government preparing a rule to ban testing on U.S. roads of

autonomous vehicles produced by Chinese firms.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li and Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Miyoung

Kim and Muralikumar Anantharaman)