What Should We Learn From Liebherr’s Growth In A Rough Market

The construction and equipment market has not been as promising as it was expected. This has also affected the market at the start of the year 2025, which is still a long way ahead to seeing more surprising updates.

In this tough and challenging market situation, Liebherr has continued its growth at a moderate pace. All the other OEMs and market leaders should learn from the strategies of Liebherr. These learning might be helpful for others in planning and executing in the future.

Liebherr reported record sales of €14.622 billion at the end of 2024, a strong 4.1% growth over the previous year. 

The business’s ability to balance the capabilities of its many divisions stands out in spite of a combination of regional slowdowns and erratic market conditions. 

Liebherr’s success reveals more about the direction of the industry and the resilience of market leaders for anyone involved in the heavy equipment business.

What should we learn from Liebherr? Here’s a simple breakdown of its strategies.

Liebherr got strong revenue stability even in a distributed market

One thing that has made Liebherr stand strong in the market is its strong and timely strategies. Liebherr has actually closely analyzed the market and distributed the risk and cashed out the situations instead of focusing on merely one sector.

As a result, strong revenue was seen in the overall growth but in a few categories. The segment that has seen strong growth is mining equipment, deep foundation machines, and mobile and crawler cranes for sale.

Although some didn’t do as well, the company’s decentralized structure allowed the profits to exceed the losses.

It is evident that the companies that can quickly adapt are the ones who stay ahead of the curve when market conditions change, particularly with global uncertainties in infrastructure spending and construction starts. 

This is how Liebherr made its major milestone.

Keeping the mining and construction domains strong

The performance of Liebherr’s construction and mining machinery division, which brought in €9.9 billion, is the section of their report that is most relevant to our sector. 

This sector alone brought a major revenue that is a 3.5% rise over 2023. It’s remarkable that this growth occurred despite a visible slowdown in certain construction markets, particularly in Germany, where demand for equipment decreased and new building starts decreased.

Things that we can adopt to learn from this very part are:

First, the demand for heavy equipment is still high enough globally to force overall development, even while certain local markets are in trouble. 

Second, smart companies can withstand local downturns by focusing on long-term projects and sustainable innovation.

Liebherr’s sales were down in Europe, but globally it surpassed

Although Europe has long been a mainstay for Liebherr, sales in the EU fell 3.5% in 2024 to €6.3 billion.  

This reflects the reality that many of us in the heavy machinery industry are witnessing: both OEMs and dealers have been negatively impacted by the downturn in European construction.

But once more, Liebherr’s worldwide reach was beneficial and carries a lesson for all.  The company’s strategic investments in growing areas outside of the EU are obviously paying off, since sales in other regions took over the slack.  

This serves as a warning to anyone purchasing or selling equipment abroad that broadening your market emphasis is crucial during difficult times.

Liebherr made agreement with Fortescue

One of the most significant developments from Liebherr’s 2024 was their historic $2.8 billion alliance with the massive Australian mining company Fortescue. 

As per the agreement, Liebherr will provide:

360-degree autonomous haul trucks powered by batteries

Fifty-five electric excavators

60 dozers that run on batteries

One of the biggest shifts to zero-emission machinery in the mining industry to date, this equipment will replace around two-thirds of Fortescue’s current fleet.

This is an obvious indication of the direction things are going for anyone working in mining or earthmoving. 

These days, sustainability is more than just a catchphrase; it’s influencing large organizations’ fleet plans and generating billion-dollar transactions. 

Additionally, even while purchasing electric or hybrid equipment can be expensive up front, more consumers are seeing the long-term benefits, particularly as gasoline prices rise and environmental laws become more stringent.

Final marks

According to Liebherr’s 2024 research, smart growth is possible even in complex markets. 

Bold moves toward electrification, a combination of diverse business divisions, and a consistent emphasis on innovation were the keys to their success.

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