Press releases | 2020-11-30

The 40,000th Liebherr mobile crane ever goes to Poland

LRT 1100-2.1 rough terrain crane goes to Polish energy company PGE GiEK
The first 20,000 cranes from the Liebherr plant in Ehingen took 37 years, the second 20,000 cranes took just 14

Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH celebrates the delivery of its 40,000th mobile crane. An LRT 1100-2.1 rough terrain crane was officially handed over to Polish energy company PGE GiEK on 10 November – in virtual form due to the coronavirus pandemic. Liebherr first opened its plant for mobile cranes in Ehingen in 1969 and supplied its 20,000th crane in 2006. Number 30,000 followed just eight years later. The next 10,000 cranes were built in just six years.

PGE GiEK - PGE Górnictwo i Energetyka Konwencjonalna Spółka Akcyjna is part of the largest group of companies in the energy sector in Poland, the PGE Capital Group. PGE GiEK operates two lignite mines and five power plants in various regions of Poland. The company has been using Liebherr all-terrain and rough terrain cranes for decades. At the same time as the LRT 1100-2.1, the company also took delivery of an LTM 1030-2.1.

The decision to buy the 100 tonne crane of the new LRT rough terrain crane series from Liebherr was also based on the high level of satisfaction within the company with the cranes from the old LTL series. The oldest crane still in the service of the Polish company is an 80 tonne model at the site in Bogatynia. The LTL 1080 was built in 1991 and has clocked over 19,100 hours of service.

Christoph Kleiner, Sales Director at Liebherr in Ehingen, thanked PGE for the trust the company placed in its products: “Thank you very much for the decades we have been partners. We are delighted to celebrate this special anniversary together with one of our loyal LTL and LTR series customers. We would also like to thank you for placing your trust in our LTM series in addition to our rough terrain cranes. You can rest assured that we will continue to do everything in our power to continue our successful collaboration.”

PGE GiEK mainly uses Liebherr cranes for maintaining and repairing mining machines, building access roads on mining sites and for installing and dismantling conveyor belts.

A history of successful cranes

Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH first opened for business in 1969 as a subsidiary of what was then a one-man business, Hans Liebherr. The production of mobile cranes and ship cranes started that same year. The plant supplied its first crawler cranes in 1978. These had lifting capacities of over 500 tonnes.

As a result of the rising capacity requirements for the ever increasing range of mobile cranes, a decision was taken to concentrate solely on mobile cranes in Ehingen as from 1980, and to relocate the production of ship, offshore and container cranes to Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH.

The truck crane product series was converted into the new LTM all-terrain crane series as from the mid-80s. This new crane generation featured completely new technology for combined road and off-road use and became extremely popular with customers in Germany and beyond, forming the basis for Liebherr becoming the market leader in mobile cranes. Today, approximately every second all-terrain mobile crane delivered anywhere in the world comes from Liebherr.