30.01.2012

Second best year for Liebherr harbour cranes

Liebherr has issued a 2011 trading statment for its Mobile harbour crane division, stating that it was the second best year in its history.

In 2008 the company sold a record 102 mobile harbour cranes, but sales crashed by a third in 2009 as the worldwide recession bit, the fall stabilised in 2010 and has picked up again in 2011, when the company supplied 85 cranes with a total value of €263 million, 25 percent up on 2010.

Europe is still by far the company’s largest market, accounting for 30 percent of its shipments, which is actually eight percent lower than in 2010. Next is South America which takes 20 percent of the production, followed by India at 16 percent and Africa at 14 percent.
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Liebherr mobile harbour cranes at work in Chile

Sales to Far East Asia, driven by Indonesia and Singapore, rose nine percent, while North American shipments doubled to eight percent.

The company says that in spite of some positive signs, the economic environment is still challenging and that excessive public debt in several markets makes it complex to forecast. The backlog at the end of 2012 however was larger than at the same point last year and is therefore confident that it will meet or beat the sales levels achieved in 2011.

The statement from Liebherr Nenzing added that a third of customers for its new LHM 550 and LHM 420 are specifying its new Pactronic hybrid drive system, exceeding its initial expectations. As a result it is rolling the system out to more crane models with the aim to have it available on the full line by 2013.