Revenue grew 11 percent in 2008 for the Liebherr Group, to €8.4 billion (about U.S. $11.8 billion), with volume from construction machinery totaling €5.6 billion (about U.S. $7.9 billion), an increase of 11.4 percent or €572.9 million.

In the earthmoving and mining division, sales revenue increased 10.4 percent to €2.7 billion, while volume from mobile cranes jumped 14.2 percent to €1.9 billion, an above-average contribution from the crane division. Construction cranes and mixing technology added an additional €1 billion.

Harbor mobile cranes, container cranes, ship and offshore cranes and container stacking cranes jumped 17.1 percent.

However, Liebherr expects sales revenues to drop significantly in 2009, to about €7 billion, closer in range to its 2006-2007 levels. The company expects its operative results to drop considerable as a result of less favorable utilization of available capacity.

In other Liebherr news, the company will lay off 44 full-time and five contract employees at its Newport News, Va., manufacturing plant because of a downturn in orders.

Liebherr Group International is based in Bulle, Switzerland.