19.12.2007

Liebherr revenues grow by over 15%

Liebherr has issued an brief overview of its first nine months results, which have seen total group revenues grow by 15.5 percent to €5.34 billion ($7.7 billion), with Construction equipment, including cranes, Telehandlers, concrete equipment and earthmoving machinery growing by 18.3 percent to €3.51 billion ($5 billion) – 66 percent of the group total.

At this stage Liebherr does not break out crane sales although it is likely to be at least half of this number.

Non-construction sales grew by 10.5 percent to reach €1.82 billion. The company expects full year 2007 revenues for the group to show similar growth to the nine months providing a total revenue of €7.5 billion (10.8 billion) of which almost €5 billion ($7.2 billion) is likely to come from construction equipment.

The company says that there will be a significant improvement in the group’s profitability compared to 2006 when it chalked up €414.6 million ($600 million). This is accompanied by a further increase in the workforce. As at the end of September 2007, Liebherr employed 29,063 people worldwide.

Capital investment in 2007 will hit a new record of over €500 million ($720 million), much of the investment has gone into expanding and modernising existing production facilities as well as the addition of some entirely new sites. Liebherr says that it has added 450,000 square metres of additional usable floor space this year.

Outlook for 2008

Liebherr says that it expects growth of the global economy is to slow somewhat during 2008, with the United States, economic development expected to be restrained while growth is also weakening a little in the Euro zone and Japan. It anticipates that Asia will continue to record strong growth rates and Germany's Gross Domestic Product will probably increase by just under two percent.

The company is starting the new financial year with an unusually strong order book. which is fully utilising production manufacturing capacity for 2008. As a result it expects revenues will climb again next year but that resultant bottlenecks will pose a logistical challenge in terms of the timely deliveries.