This magazine received a strongly worded letter from Rudolf Brüstle a couple of months ago. As managing director of Liebherr-Werk Biberach he felt, probably quite justifiably, that we had been insufficiently rigorous in our acceptance of Potain’s claims of market leadership in tower crane sales. Perhaps Potain will respond with equal alacrity now that we report here that Brüstle claims Liebherr had a 34% worldwide market share, by unit, for the first half of 1999. This puts it just a shade ahead of Potain, says Brüstle. Potain itself claims a 30% market share for 1998. Worldwide, it should be noted, excludes Russia and China in this context, where there are many cranes, though brands are not always easily discernible.
Brüstle says that it is not possible to give market share by value, because only units are reported to relevant statistical bodies, such as MPTS of France and VDMA of Germany.
Liebherr’s figures are aided greatly by the success of its Spanish subsidiary Liebherr Industrias Metallicas whose tower crane manufacturing operation adds more than DM100m on top of Biberach’s estimated DM360m for 1999. Turnover at Biberach is well up on 1998’s figure of DM307m, but still down on the 1992 peak of DM600m.
Behind this year’s improving picture lies a rise in house-building in Germany, generating a demand for self-erectors which make up about 80% of the German market. The tower crane rental sector, particularly for top slewing cranes is also developing rapidly. Liebherr has not followed Man Wolffkran into the rental business, but many of its dealers have rental fleets.
The ECL luffing range, introduced at Bauma 98, has not had the chance to really establish itself in the market place, but when the Asian market recovers it will be marketed strongly there.
One of the biggest developments in the tower crane business over the past year or so has been the acquisition of Peiner and Gru Comedil by Terex. Brüstle says that Terex’s entrance has yet to have any significance in Europe but is making an impact in the USA, which is a growing market.
Terex Peiner has delivered 400tm cranes to the rental company Anthony. This rather scuppered Liebherr because the Peiner cranes had a better chart than Liebherr’s nearest equivalent, the 380 EC-H. So, prompted by its North American distributor Morrow Equipment, Liebherr has developed new models. Delivery started last month of a special order of 20 units of the 420tm model 420 EC-H to Morrow. It has also already delivered three 550 HC cranes, which are rated at 520tm.
The 420 EC-H was initially a special crane but will be available for the general market by the end of the year, Brüstle says.
Innovations at Biberach over the past year or two have been mostly concentrated on developing controls technology, rather than new lifting concepts. Litronic, Liebherr’s electronic monitoring system to increase capacity by slowing down movements, is now available on all cranes from 112tm to 280tm.
However, a new crane has been designed in conjunction with the mobile crane factory at nearby Ehingen. The MK80 is an all-lattice tower crane with similar dimensions to the 78K, mounted on a four-axle Liebherr-Werk Ehingen chassis. Design drawings show that it has an 8t maximum lifting capacity, a 50m jib, a 28m height under hook, and can lift 1.7t at 42m.
It has been developed in response to a request from the Dutch rental company Verschoor Kranen. The prototype of this all-hydraulic model will be ready at the beginning of next year, the company says, but do not expect to see it launched at Intermat, the Paris show next May.