Liebherr Mobile Harbour Cranes

The worldwide market for port equipment continues to develop positively in line with expectation. As the leading producer of Mobile Harbour Cranes and through its extensive international business Liebherr has increased world market share and further strengthened its competitive positions in all regions. With the delivery of 102 Mobile Harbour Cranes in 2008 Liebherr was for the first time able to jump the hurdle of 100 machines. This figure signifies an increase of 16% in deliveries compared to 2007. Furthermore it’s the third double-digit growth in a row and by far the best performance of all manufacturers.

In Europe Liebherr has noticeably increased order intake. Once again, Europe was the largest market worldwide, where 50% of all Mobile Harbour Cranes were purchased. An animated course of business further strengthened competitive position. It was followed in a notable distance by the Middle East (17%). Third place was taken by Africa (13%) followed closed up by South America (9%). North America, India and Far East are sharing the remaining 11% quite equally.

The worldwide rise in demand for Mobile Harbour Cranes had a positive impact on the development of sales. Customer base is widely spread all over the world and very balanced. Top selling countries in 2008 were Spain and Kuwait with 13 machines delivered each. Brazil & Turkey (6 machines each) increased their importance as sales markets and were positioned just before Nigeria, UAE and Russia (five machines each) in third place. These seven Nations account for over 50% of the total global consumption of Liebherr Mobile Harbour Cranes. In addition, Liebherr continued to develop its worldwide presence with new entries on the global map, i.e. Angola, and Latvia coming on board. As a result, Liebherr Mobile Harbour Cranes are now present in no less than 83 countries.

Liebherr will further expand its global presence in major markets. Liebherr considers the future sales markets to still be in Europe, but also in the Middle East deliveries have developed in a very positive way and in Africa growth has been higher than average. In the short and medium-term Liebherr will expand direct sales in these markets and will further strengthen its leading competitive position.

In 2008 Liebherr founded Liebherr Africa with its registered office in Durban, South Africa. With this subsidiary to Liebherr-Werk Nenzing Liebherr further expands its sales and service activities in Africa.

Paying the needed attention to the still growing market for Mobile Harbour Cranes in southern Europe and to serve its customers locally Liebherr has founded 2 new sales and service stations in Turkey and Romania. In addition, the company optimises spare parts logistics in the group to reduce delivery times and stocks worldwide.

In the expired year all signs pointed toward innovation. Liebherr's technical expertise in the areas of load distribution, chassis stiffness, suspension geometry, electronic systems calibration and engine and transmission design were combined in the market launch of the new LHM 180 and LHM 280 to ensure the dynamic performance has the ultimate handling balance. Like their "big brothers," the smaller cranes now all feature higher luffing, slewing and hoisting speeds as well as technical up-grades; that will save the customer money and make the crane a more environmentally friendly machine. A total of 13 delivered LHM 180 and LHM 280 cranes plus 1 unit LPS 180 (portal solution) shows that the new cranes were very well accepted in the market.

In 2009 the LHM 120 will follow. With a max. lifting capacity of 42 tonnes and a max. outreach of 30 meters this machine completes the new LHM "lightweight range".

Top selling models in 2008 were the LHM 500 with 40 and the LHM 400 with 32 machines accounting for over 70% of the total scope of delivery. Through the application of the principles of total commitment, quality and excellence, the Liebherr Mobile Harbour Crane has established itself at the forefront of maritime engineering and technology.

"Liebherr intends to further expand its role as a technological trendsetter through its unabated focus on innovation. Liebherr has know-how which is unparalleled in the industry. Liebherr's core of area of expertise "lifting" is complemented by automation and dedicated software solutions for Mobile Harbour Cranes. In addition, Liebherr recognised the importance of service very early on and has developed into a full-service supplier; the service segment is operated by Liebherr-Werk Nenzing and its subsidiaries, which offer cross-functional service for all aspects of Liebherr Mobile Harbour Cranes. Liebherr will continue to promote this area in the future and Liebherr will also continue its value and growth-oriented strategy in the financial year 2009", concludes Leopold Berthold, Sales Director Liebherr Port Equipment.

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The Liebherr Group comprises more than 100 companies worldwide and employs a total workforce in excess of 30,000 people. In 2007, Liebherr achieved a total consolidated turnover of about 7.5 billion Euro. The Liebherr Group's holding company is Liebherr-International AG in Bulle, Switzerland, which is wholly owned by members of the Liebherr family. The business is now in the hands of the second generation of the family and is jointly run by Dipl. Kfm. Isolde Liebherr and her brother Dr.h.c. Dipl.-Ing. (ETH) Willi Liebherr.

The Liebherr Group is organized into autonomous, decentralized, easily manageable corporate units, thus ensuring optimum customer proximity and flexibility of response to competitive global markets. Operative management of the production and sales companies in the individual product segments is in the hands of their respective divisional headquarters.

Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH is the largest maritime crane production site and head of the division controlling company, the Liebherr-MCCtec GmbH, which is responsible for the Liebherr range of maritime cranes. The Liebherr-MCCtec GmbH has now four state-of-the-art production sites for maritime cranes as well as five fully owned sales and service organisations in Hong Kong, Amersfoort (Netherlands), Hamburg (Germany), Niederhergheim (France) and Mumbai (India). The Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH manufactures and markets an extensive range of product lines including ship cranes, offshore cranes, mobile harbour cranes and reachstackers. On the international building machinery market Liebherr is the leading producer of universal duty cycle crawler cranes, lift cranes as well as foundation equipment.

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