More than 300 construction and maritime industry professionals came together last week to celebrate the grand opening of Liebherr’s new $20 million sales and service center in Miami, Fla. Designed to serve as a major hub for Liehberr’s maritime cranes division, the state-of-the-art facility located near the Port of Miami and Miami International Airport will strengthen business relations to Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. Access to the port and airport is expected to accelerate the distribution of parts and services and help the company respond to customers quickly.
After its groundbreaking in March 2012, the sales and service center in Hialeah Gardens was completed in only 15 months. Liebherr’s 431,000 sq.-ft. complex includes a 41,000 sq.-ft. building with more than 50 staff members working at the facility. The sales and service center includes a fully furnished workshop with a 10-ton overhead crane, two 20-ft. welding containers, a 20-ft. wire rope reeling container, and two fully equipment mobile harbor crane commissioning containers. Special tools and equipment for after-sales service are also at the facility.
In the United States, Liebherr has two sales and service centers. The facility located in Houston is focused on the construction machinery division, while the Miami center focuses on maritime cranes. “In order to perfectly serve our customers in the western part of the United States, a further branch office in California is planned as a next step,” said Leopold Berthold, managing director of sales for maritime cranes, during a press conference at the grand opening.
During the same press conference, Gernot Schranz, president of Liebherr Nenzing Crane Co., said the facility is of great importance for the company’s mobile harbor cranes. “In 2012, about 65% of total sales and service revenue of Liebherr Nenzing Crane Co. in the mobile harbor cranes segment was achieved in Latin America and in the Caribbean, mainly in Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico, whereas North America constituted for 35% of the turnover,” he said.
Event highlights
During the grand opening, Liebherr exhibited some of its newest technical highlights, including the Pactronic hybrid drive system for mobile harbor cranes, carbon fiber reinforced plastic pendants for crawler cranes, the Liebherr Simulations (LiSIM) maritime crane simulator, and customized software solutions, including the LiDAT data transmission and positioning system.
Machine demonstrations of the Liebherr LRS 645 reach stacker, which is part of the maritime cargo handling equipment product line, and the Liebherr LR 1250 crawler crane were also part of the day’s events. The LRS 645 reach stacker was developed with a unique curved telescopic boom to extend the unit’s reach and provide extra space for stacking. The machine can lift containers as heavy as 45 metric tons to heights of six containers in the first row. The curved boom allows the unit to reach up and over the top container and remove the top container in the second row without removing the top container in the first row.
Liebherr also demonstrated the LR 1250 crawler crane’s exact handling capabilities. The operator lowered the load—a Liebherr excavator—with enough precision to cork a champagne bottle. At the grand opening, Allegiance Crane of Pompano Beach, Fla., purchased the LR 1250 crawler.
The event concluded with a performance by Brazilian dancers who defied gravity as they danced from the hooks of two all-terrain cranes, also owned by Allegiance Crane.
Lift & Access is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
