16.08.2005

Liebherr to top €5 billion

The Liebherr group has released its results for 2004, which show a 12.3 percent increase in revenues to €4.59 billion. Construction related revenues climbed to €2.89 billion an increase of almost €400 million or 16 percent.

Mobile and tower cranes represented around €1.3 billion of this, divided between Mobile crane sales, up 14 percent to €985 million and tower cranes, which are combined with concrete mixers, increased by almost 22 percent to just under €400 million (€398). Convert sales for these two crane sectors into dollars and you are looking at somewhere in the region of $1.6 billion. Making Liebherr the world wide market leader.

When marine and ship cranes are added to the total, Liebherr’s crane sales, expressed in dollars jump to almost €2 billion.

Construction equipment sales at Liebherr represented almost 63 percent of group revenues, up from 61 percent in 2003.

Sales of maritime cranes, which include harbour mobile cranes, ship cranes, offshore cranes and container cranes, rose by over five percent to €271 million, this reflected a strong increase in harbour mobile and container cranes and a modest decline in ship and offshore cranes.

Other divisions

Aviation/Aerospace revenues increased by seven percent to €579 million after several years of decline,

Domestic appliance sales rose marginally to €589 million, thanks to a strong increase in Eastern Europe.

Machine tool sales increased by almost 10 percent to €150 million, largely in the USA and China.

Other products and services totalled €15.7 million this covers the hotels and drive and control technology components.

Looking at the results geographically, Western Europe, accounted for 66 percent of group revenues and remains its most important market, Liebherr strengthened its already strong position. Eastern Europe posted strong growth for the group as did North America, following a poor year in 2003 and the Far East and Australia.


Capital investment jumped by almost 34 percent to €253 million taking the total sum invested over the past five years to over a billion euros. With production running close to full capacity, the number of people employed by the group rose by 1,185 to 22, 245.

Net income for the group increased by almost 15 percent to €177.6 million return on sales was 3.9 percent compared with 3.8 percent in 2003

Outlook for 2005

Liebherr says that the growth in order intake has continued into 2005, particularly in the construction machinery sector. Most plants though are now close to their maximum production limits.

The company is forecasting a revenue increase in the region of 10 percent, achieving a new record and passing five billion euros for the first time.
Capital Investment will be in the €300 million range a new high for the company.

Operating margins continue to come under pressure, Liebherr say that it has not managed to pass on the full effect of the price increases it has seen for many raw materials and components. This along with currency volatility, result in a conservative forecast of static net income in 2005.