At a press conference on occasion of the Bauma China 2010 trade fair in Shanghai, P.R. China, Liebherr informed about ongoing business affairs with particular focus on the activities in the People’s Republic of China.

Winfried Boehm, Member of the Board of Directors of Liebherr-International AG in Bulle, Switzerland, said that in the first six months of 2010, the Liebherr Group’s worldwide turnover was 11.8 % higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year, and totalled 3,652.0 million . Construction machines generated a turnover of 2,216.4 million  which is an increase of 6.6 %. Boehm said that this increase is due to the upturn in the Liebherr Group’s earthmoving and mining division, turnover from which increased by 28.6 % to 1,081.2 million . Turnover from the two other construction machinery product areas which include mobile cranes as well as construction cranes and mixing technology went down. Turnover from products outside the construction machinery areas in the first six months of 2010 increased by 20.9 % to reach 1,435.6 million .

For the year 2010 as a whole the Liebherr Group currently expects an increase of about 6 % or approximately 420 million  in turnover, to a total of about 7.4 billion , Boehm said.

Dr. Stefan Gilch, Managing Director of Liebherr Machinery Service (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, P.R. China, said that the Liebherr Group could increase its turnover in P.R. China even in the crisis year 2009 by more than 50 %. Dr. Gilch added that the Group expects another significant growth in the Chinese market for the current year and that the upward trend in China is fuelled by significant investments into the entities of Liebherr in China as well as by product innovations that are tailored for the Chinese and emerging markets. As one of Liebherr’s Bauma China 2010 exhibition highlights, Dr. Gilch mentioned the first Chinese built Liebherr wheel loader L 556 II, which features hydrostatic fuel-saving technology for Chinese customers.

Christoph Kleiner, Managing Director of Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH in Ehingen, Germany, focused on China being traditionally a very important market for Liebherr’s large mobile and crawler cranes and pointed out that the development in the past five years has been particularly positive. Kleiner announced that the LTR 11200 crawler chassis 1,200-t-telecopic crane which Liebherr exhibits at the Bauma China 2010, has been sold to China Power Large Size Equipment Assembling Construction Co. Ltd. This Liebherr customer already operates one unit of this crane concept on tyre chassis and has ordered a second one of the same type.