Liebherr has published its full year results for 2024, showing strong growth for the mobile and crawler crane business, but a steep decline for tower crane sales, while maritime crane revenues were slightly higher.
Mobile & crawler cranes
The mobile and crawler crane business, based in Ehingen, saw revenues for the full year improve 13.4 percent to €3.92 billion.
The geographic split in sales was as follows: European Union - 38.1% Non Eu countries - 8.9% North America - 29.8% South & Central America - 2.8% Africa - 7.2% Asia & Oceania - 13.2%
Tower cranes
The tower crane business saw revenues decline 38.2 percent to €315 million, thanks to slower sales in Europe.
The geographic breakdown of sales was as follows: European Union - 55.9% Non Eu countries - 15.6% North America - 6.0% South & Central America - 1.6% Africa - 7.9% Asia & Oceania - 13.0%
Maritime cranes
The maritime crane division reported sales of just over €1 billion, up 3.6 percent on 2023.
In addition, Liebherr produces heavy duty cycle and foundation cranes. The Deep Foundation division achieved sales of €399 million, but this includes a variety of foundation related equipment.
Group Result
The group as a whole saw revenues increase by four percent to €14.62 billion, while the pre-tax profit slipped 7.5 percent to €617 million, the combined totals of Liebherr’s crane businesses have revenues in the region of €5.5 billion, or roughly 37 percent of its total revenues.
A few Liebherr facts
Outlook
Looking to the current year and beyond the company said: “The economic challenges and trends have a direct impact on the Liebherr group, with some industries facing not only high cost pressure to offer products and services at competitive prices, but also a challenging competitive landscape. Nonetheless, the Group is in a good position, globally speaking, with its innovative products and solutions, long standing customer relationships and independently operating business units. There are also various opportunities, particularly in aerospace and the mining industry, as well as in the Australian and American markets.”
“The group will even be able to compensate for fluctuations thanks to its high degree of diversification and decentralisation and its financial independence as a family-run company. The Liebherr group therefore has a positive outlook for the future. For the current business year, the group expects moderate growth with stable revenue distribution. Not least of all, it is the more than 50,000 employees worldwide who guarantee Liebherr’s long term success through their valuable work.”
Vertikal Comment
What is there to say about Liebherr - it proceeds with its long term policies through thick and thin and rarely put off, and in the end tends to win out, thanks to it being privately owned, with no real debt, while seemingly happy with whatever profit it generates.
It is a hard competitor for publicly quoted businesses which inevitably tend to be more focused on shorter term growth and returns on capital.
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