When Liebherr buys back mobile and crawler cranes in Germany, their first port of call is Ehingen or the repair centres in Alt Bork (near Berlin) and Oberhausen. In other countries, the cranes are stored in local branches or tested on site and then transported straight to the new owner. They may also be transported between continents if necessary. An LR 11350 crawler crane underwent one of the longest journeys of all – the only place that one of these models was available quickly was on the border between the USA and Canada. The giant crane was therefore shipped from Huston via Genoa to Novorossiysk in Russia “quickly” (and of course with the appropriate care). Mission accomplished, customer happy, project rescued. The vast majority of cranes are located in Europe, however, from where they are shipped to Eastern Europe where most buyers of used cranes can be found.
It should also be mentioned that we at Liebherr are not only the only crane manufacturer that sells second hand machines, but we are also the largest dealer of used cranes in the world. Bernd Rechtsteiner and his team sell around 250 cranes every year – from small two-axle machines to massive crawler cranes. The Liebherr homepage generally only features around 30 used cranes available to buy at any one time, however. “But not because we only have so few available”, says Department Manager Rechtsteiner. “Instead, the fact is that we often know long in advance when a crane will be coming back and who is looking for that model. That means that we can react very quickly and precisely to specific customer enquiries.”
The second hand trade is also strategically important due to its role as a door-opener. In regions with upward-trending economies such as South Africa and Australia at the current time, the value for money used machines provide us with a method of opening up new markets and customers. “We are renowned for quality and value retention there as well”, says Rechtsteiner. “Our mobile cranes can easily get to 25 years old or more, whilst lattice boom cranes last even longer. Together with our efficient, worldwide service network, our good customer relations and lower capital commitment, these are very telling arguments in favour of our low cost cranes.”