Liebherr Group says it had a positive performance for the first half of 2021 with a sharp increase in turnover, a high level of incoming orders and increasing investments.
The mining and quarrying equipment provider says it expects that this trend will continue throughout the current year.
Owing to the positive development of the demand in the first half of 2021, Liebherr says it currently expects to attain the second highest turnover in the group’s history by the year end and therefore only slightly below the turnover of the year prior to the corona pandemic.
It cautions that a change in the macroeconomic conditions, the difficult situation on the procurement markets or even recent restrictions of business due to the corona pandemic pose risks for the further positive development, whose impacts however remain controllable for 2021.
The H1 turnover of €5,616m as at 30 June 2021 represented an increase of €663m or 13.4% compared to the previous year.
Revenues in the earthmoving, material handling technology, deep foundation machines, mobile and crawler cranes, tower cranes, concrete technology and mining product segments grew by over 16% altogether.
In the other product segments, including maritime cranes, aerospace and transportation systems, gear technology and automation systems, refrigeration and freezing, as well as components and hotels, the turnover increased by over 7% as a whole.
The regional distribution of turnover shifted in the first half of 2021 towards European and American markets. In some instances, significant revenue increases were achieved there. In many markets in Asia, Africa, as well as the Near and Middle East, the influence of the pandemic on business can still be felt, which is reflected in sales losses.
Liebherr says that order intake improved considerably in all product segments of the Group, adding that it has never received so many orders within a half year and this is proof of the high international demand for its products and services.
Due to the strong demand and the current tense situation in some procurement markets, the current volume of orders on hand of the Liebherr Group is also at a high level.
Liebherr has also increased investments substantially, including in the expansion of its sites. Two large-scale projects are to be realised in the coming years at Liebherr-Werk Ehingen.
Firstly, the new construction of the Repair Centre South Germany in the Berg industrial park in Ehingen is planned by 2022. In addition, the new spare parts and shipment warehouse will be in operation by 2024.
Secondly, Liebherr in Ehingen wants to extend its factory premises with a green factory by 2030 in order to expand its production capacities for the increasing demand for mobile and crawler cranes.
Outside Europe Liebherr has started the construction of a new premises at the Dalian site in China. In doing so, the Liebherr Group is expanding the production of large diameter bearings, gearboxes and hydraulic cylinders for the Chinese market. The production is expected to start at the end of 2022.
The company says digitalisation is one focal point of the development activities, another focal point is new drive technologies for the construction and mining industry, aerospace, rail cars and agricultural machines amongst others.
In March Liebherr introduced the R 9600 new generation of hydraulic open-pit mining excavators. The models are available with different drives including an electric drive.
The new electric crawler excavators R 976-E and R 980 SME-E also work with zero local emissions. With low-cost maintenance and lower operating costs, the excavators guarantee the familiar high performance and reliability also in extreme conditions.
Also this year, Liebherr has rolled out its first all-electric truck mixers to enable quiet and zero-emission concrete transport. The drum drive developed by Liebherr and ZF comprises a low-maintenance, efficient unit of electric motor and mixer transmission. For the first time the truck and the mixer are powered from the traction battery.
