30.11.2010

Liebherr revenues up 11.8%

Liebherr has reported first half revenues of €3.65bn up 11.8 percent on the same period last year.

The basic sales numbers were announced at a press conference last week at Bauma China in Shanghai. Winfried Boehm of Liebherr-International said that of the total, sales of construction equipment for the period were €2.22 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent on last year.
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(L-R) Winfried Boehm, Stefan Gilch and Christoph Kleiner at the Liebherr press conference at Bauma China.

Boehm said that this increase was due to the upturn in Liebherr’s earthmoving and mining division, which increased revenues by 28.6 percent to €1.08 billion. Cranes and mixing technology revenues fell 12.5 percent during the same period to €1.08 billion and sales of other products were up 20.9 percent to €1.44 billion.
Liebherr expects group revenues for the full year to come in around six percent higher at around €7.4 billion.

Dr. Stefan Gilch, managing director of Liebherr Machinery Service (Shanghai), said that the company expects another significant year of growth in the Chinese market for 2010, possibly up 50 percent on 2009. He also announced the sale of a 1,200 tonne LTR11200 crawler telescopic crane, exhibited at the show, to China Power Large Size Equipment Assembling Construction Co. which already operates a 1,200 tonne LTM11200 All Terrain.

Vertikal Comment

This is a very good set of revenues from Liebherr and although the crane business is down on last year, a 12.5 percent fall is better than the industry average for the period and not at all bad considering the depth of the current downturn which hit mobile crane sales later than most other equipment.

Liebherr has continued its relentless forward progress throughout the economic slowdown and as a result is well placed to reap the most benefits as orders start to flow again.

However while the crane market has been in the doldrums the pace of new product development has continued and when western buyers come back into the market for new cranes they will have a wider choice of new models to pick from.

The company needs to keep its eye on the competitiveness of its core volume AT range – Its dominant market share in this sector means that it is always the one under attack from competitors.