Although Liebherr has not released full-year statements, for comparison purposes Cranes Today has adjusted its 2006 sales upward by a three-quarter construction machinery sales growth rate that it reported in December (18.3%). This calculation yields a 2007 sales estimate of USD 3.091bn. Crane sales are likely to amount to less than this, because the figure includes sales of mixing technology. The company does not publicly separate crane sales from mixing technology.
In third place is Terex Cranes, with sales of USD 2.235bn, and fourth place is Tadano, with sales of USD 1.420bn.
China’s biggest crane manufacturer, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Inc, generated RMB10bn (USD 1.313m) in sales income in 2007, and unit sales exceeding 10,000 units, according to a report in China Industry Daily News. “The company is now one of the world’s largest mobile engineering crane manufacturers, coming fourth in the global crane industry,” the report says. Cranes Today statistics suggest that the company was actually the fifth biggest crane manufacturer by sales revenue in 2007. But because Manitowoc and Terex Cranes do not publicly separate results for mobile, tower and crawler crane divisions, it is not possible to verify its claim to be number four in mobiles.
Sixth is loader crane manufacturer Palfinger, whose 2007 sales nearly hit USD 1bn.
Seventh is likely to be Kobelco. Although full-year 2007 results are not available, the company reported sales of USD 558m in the year from October 2006-September 2007. With Terex and Manitowoc reporting strong sales growth in the October to December, Kobelco’s results will likely be more.
Japanese crane manufacturer has Kato has reported April-December sales of 42,390m Yen, up 16.2% on the previous period in 2006. Combined with its January-March 2007 sales of JPY 14,949m, the company posted total 2007 sales of JPY 57,337m ($488m).
