Crane Company Rapid Expansion, Germany

Feature Articles / Rapid Expansion for Crane Company, Germany

"Rostock and its port have given Liebherr the opportunity to manufacture maritime products at a volume and speed that was not previously possible. We can load our cranes and components directly from the factory to the ship, meaning that we can enter new market segments, such as offshore” said Thomas Müller, branch manager of Liebherr-MCCTEC Rostock GmbH.

Established in 1949, the Liebherr Group started their business by producing affordable tower cranes and expanded their product range to aircraft parts and household appliances. Additionally, the company is a producer of mining and digging tools, for example loaders, excavators and extreme-size dump trucks. Today, the company operates in several countries and employs approximately 33,000 people. The annual revenue for 2010 was €6,961 million.

In 2001, Liebherr needed to expand their capacity and decided to invest in the city of Rostock, in order to produce their cranes on the Baltic coast. This process was supported by the Rostock Port Management Company (Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock mbH or HERO) and the city’s economic development agency Rostock Business.

For the company premises, the port needed 25 hectares of embankment, translated into 1.3 million m³ of grit from the Baltic Sea and an investment volume of €23 million, financed by the HERO and the Ministry of Economics, Labour and Tourism of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Liebherr invested in a location at the port of Rostock – the economic heart of the city. The port offers a free passage, without obstacles such as locks and bridges. It provides ideal conditions for Liebherr, not just geographically but - more importantly - due to the quayside position, providing a unique advantage that was only available in Rostock.

Before the investment in Rostock, Liebherr’s crane production was centred in Nenzing, Austria, far away from harbours. In Rostock, the cranes can be produced in one piece and loaded directly on to a ship, saving approximately €75,000 in transportation costs previously incurred for transporting a single crane overland.

Work on the quayside production facilities began in 2003, when the company invested €60 million in their first facility, starting out with 210 employees on a total area of 226,000 m². The new plant included production and painting facilities, as well as offices in an area of 56,000 m².

Production started already in 2005 with 30 cranes, and it is the first production facility in the history of the company that was expanded before its official opening in May 2006, with overall capacity having increased to 70 cranes by the time the facility opened.

Liebherr had reached full capacity by 2007, and continued to expand its workforce and product line. External premises were rented to provide additional capacity. The product range was then grown further in 2008, with the production of the largest offshore slewing cranes worldwide. By this time, Liebherr was completing one crane every three days at its Rostock facility.

The following year, Liebherr released plans to double their capacity in terms of space and employees by investing €130 million in the plant and expanding it by 60,000 m^2, to a total area of 345,000 m². A fundamental requirement for the extension was the further development of the harbour, the moorings for heavy goods transportation and the enlargement of the maritime industrial area by 12 hectares. This was all realised by the HERO and the Ministry of Economics, Labour and Tourism. The facility will be 750m long, making it the second largest plant in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern area. The only building larger than this is the external facility Liebherr rents in Lubmin, which is also in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Liebherr’s new plant will open in 2012.

Today, Liebherr has 1000 employees and has invested a total of €163.5 million in Rostock. The company has extended their product range by developing cranes for ships, which are able to install 80 offshore wind turbines every year, enhancing their position in the booming offshore wind energy industry.