Liebherr Press Breakfast

at Bauma China 2008

November 26, 2008

Introduction

presented by

Winfried Boehm

Member of the Board of Directors of Liebherr-International AG Bulle (Switzerland)

Winfried Boehm，Member of the Board of Directors of Liebherr-International AG amongst others Corporate Communications, Accounting as well as Human Resources at the Group level

　　Ladies and Gentlemen:

　　it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the Liebherr pavilion on the occasion of this year’s Liebherr Bauma China Press Breakfast. With this event we would like to offer you the latest information on the situation within the Liebherr Group and provide you with an overview on our current activities in China.

　　Please allow me to introduce today’s speakers to you:

　　Ÿ Dr. Stefan Gilch is Managing Director of two Liebherr companies – Liebherr Machinery (Dalian) Co., Ltd. and Liebherr Machinery Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. The latter company is responsible for selling and servicing our construction machinery in China.

　　Ÿ Mr Christoph Kleiner is Managing Director of Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH, the production and also controlling company of our Mobile Cranes division. In Ehingen, Germany, Liebherr builds a wide range of mobile cranes with telescoping or lattice booms on wheels or crawler undercarriages. Christoph Kleiner is responsible for sales and marketing in the mobile cranes division.

　　My name is Winfried Boehm, I am member of the Board of Directors of Liebherr-International AG, our Group’s holding company in Bulle, Switzerland. My responsibilities include amongst others Corporate Communications, Accounting as well as Human Resources at the Group level.

　　Before we start with our presentations, let me inform you that any questions you might have will be answered after the press conference during our breakfast in the VIP area of our booth.

　　Ladies and gentlemen:

　　I now would like to provide you with some general information about Liebherr and give you a brief summary of the current developments within our Group of companies.

　　Liebherr was established in 1949 by Dr. Hans Liebherr in Kirchdorf, a small town in the southern part of Germany. Over the past decades the family business has grown into what is today a group of companies, employing a workforce of more than 30,000 people. The Liebherr Group consists also of more than 100 companies on all continents and has 35 production sites at its disposal. The business is now in the hands of the second generation of the family and is jointly run by Dr. Willi Liebherr, Chairman of the Administrative Board of Liebherr-International AG, and his sister Isolde Liebherr, Vice-Chairman of the Administrative Board of Liebherr-International AG.

　　Our Group today is divided into nine divisions:

　　The divisions in our construction machinery sector are:

　　Earthmoving and Mining

　　Mobile Cranes, as well as

　　Construction Cranes and Mixing Technology

　　Our other divisions are:

　　Maritime Cranes and Port Equipment

　　Aerospace and Transportation Systems

　　Machine Tools and Automation Systems

　　Domestic Appliances

　　Components and finally

　　Hotels

　　In all product areas Liebherr is able to supply complete model lines. Our products are renowned for their technical maturity, quality and maximum customer benefit. In the construction machinery sector our extensive product range is unsurpassed in its diversity.

　　Ladies and Gentlemen:

　　Please let me provide you now with some brief information on our Group’s progress in the current business year. It began once again with more orders in hand than in the previous year. In the first six months of 2008, the Liebherr Group’s turnover increased again compared with the same period of the previous year, by 373.0 million euros or 10.7 %, to 3,864.0 million euros. Growth in the construction machinery area was even stronger than in other product areas. Production capacities were well utilised in the first half of the current year, though in certain product areas there were initial signs that demand was slackening off.

　　As you are aware, world economic growth has slowed down distinctly in 2008. At the beginning of the year there were still hopes that the remainder of the world would only be slightly affected by the threatening downturn in the United States of America, but in the second half of this year, and especially in recent weeks, it is evident that the burden imposed by the crisis in the US real-estate and financial markets is exerting an effect on more and more regions of the world. The finance market crisis has jumped across to Europe, South America and Asia, and is already beginning to have adverse effects on the real economy.

　　This is currently becoming evident within the Liebherr Group as a reluctance to invest on the part of a number of customers, since the necessary finance is not available to them to the same extent or in some cases the cost of obtaining it has greatly increased. As a result, demand has dropped in certain markets, though this naturally depends on the product area concerned. The trend is exacerbated by general economic weaknesses in certain countries.

　　None the less, the Liebherr Group continues to anticipate an increase in turnover in the region of 10 % for 2008 as a whole. The volume of our workforce will also be higher at the end of the year than it was a year previously, and investments have once again increased considerably. But as you can imagine, it is extremely difficult at this juncture to make a detailed forecast for 2009. Following the dynamic growth phase of the past five years – from 2003 to 2008 our Group’s turnover doubled – a consolidation phase is likely to set in from next year onwards.

　　Before I invite you to listen to what our speakers have to say, it is very important for me to add a few words about the significance of the Chinese market for Liebherr. Our China business has grown steadily since the opening of our first agency in Beijing in 1978. Today China is one of the very important markets for our Group and it is the largest Asian market for sales of Liebherr construction machinery. We employ more than 650 people and operate three manufacturing and assembly plants for construction machinery in China including one in Hong Kong. Over the years we have built up strong relations with partners in many regions of China.

　　The importance we attach to this country is expressed by one of our current aid projects here in China that is related to the earthquake which occurred on May 12, 2008, in Sichuan Province. I would like to ask Stefan Gilch now to provide you with information on this project before talking about Liebherr’s activities in China.

　　Thank you very much for your kind attention.