Liebherr Mietpartner adds new TA230 ADT to its rental fleet

Liebherr Mietpartner will add as many as 55 of the new Liebherr TA230 articulated dump trucks to its rental operations in Germany and France as part of a refreshing of its fleet.

The significant investment in the 30 t dump trucks underlines Liebherr's commitment to its rental division, said Martin Schickel, the Liebherr veteran who took over as general manager of the rental business in January this year following the retirement of previous head Hubertus Marx.

Mr Schickel, who has led Liebherr Rental in France since 2001, told IRN at Bauma that the 900 unit rental fleet in Germany had performed strongly in the first two months of 2010; "The feeling is that it is growing higher - I hope it will continue."

He said that around 150-200 machines in the fleet would be replaced in Germany this year.

Liebherr Mietpartner's other major rental business is in France, where it has a fleet of 450 machines, and will add as many as 20 units this year.

"It was very hard in France in 2009", said Mr Schickel, "but it has been going better since November last year. It's definitely better."

He cited several major rail projects - including new TGV lines between Nancy and Strasbourg and Tours and Bordeaux - that would benefit the rental business.

Meanwhile, Liebherr is downsizing its Spanish rental business from a fleet of 350 machines to nearer 300 by the end of this year. And in Italy it has closed the rental business completely and sold the fleet.

He said the decision had been taken in part because of economic difficulties and also because Liebherr has a lower market share for construction equipment there than in other European countries, making it more difficult to rent machines in Italy.

Mr Schickel said Liebherr would continue to invest in its UK rental operation as well, boosting the 80 machine holding by 25-30 machines this year. "I can see in three or maybe four years a machine fleet of 400 units [in the UK]", he told IRN.