Liebherr achieves record group turnover

18 April 2018 by Sotiris Kanaris

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Liebherr Group has seen its turnover rise by 9.3% in 2017, reaching € 9,845m – the highest in its history. The company’s mobile crane segment saw a marginal fall in sales, while the tower crane segment's sales revenue grew substantially.

Sales of construction and mining equipment - which includes mobile and tower cranes – rose by 14.5% to €6.18bn.

The Mobile Cranes division achieved revenues of €2.06bn in the financial year 2017. This represents a slight drop of €15m, or 0.7%, compared to the previous year. Europe accounted for 56% of the sales revenue, with Western Europe on its own accounting for 48.8% of the total.

“In Western Europe, the division slightly increased its sales compared with the year before. Particularly in Germany, the market was highly dynamic. Despite the Brexit debate, demand in the United Kingdom even exceeded the previous year’s level. However, sales took a slight downturn in Denmark, Austria and Belgium. Southern Europe saw a positive development, particularly in Italy. In Eastern Europe, sales were at the previous year’s level,” said the manufacturer.

Liebherr found global demand for crawler cranes in 2017 slightly above the level of the previous year. For the company, this was particularly noticeable with crawler cranes in the 300t-plus class.

“Here, the division expanded its share of the global market to 47.9%.  By contrast, there was a decline in demand for mobile cranes under 300t. The LR 1300 remained the best-selling lattice boom crawler crane. Liebherr’s worldwide share of the market for all-terrain cranes stood at 52.4 %, slightly below the previous year’s level. The strongest demand recorded was for machines in the three-axle to six-axle classes.”

In the Far East/Australia region, Liebherr mobile crane sales increased significantly, accounting for 14.5% of the total - Japan and Australia saw outstanding development. A fall in sales was recorded in the Near and Middle East as well as the Americas.

“In the USA, the already high demand for mobile cranes continued to rise, while crawler crane sales declined. The Argentinian and Canadian markets recovered in comparison with the previous year. Mexico, however, witnessed a downturn following strong development the year before.”

“The division’s sales for 2018 are expected to outperform the 2017 level. Order volume is already at an outstanding level for the beginning of 2018,” said Liebherr.