Building bridges over international waters

China is a mining and mineral powerhouse. The country is the largest producer, consumer, importer and trader of minerals in the world. But despite being such a force within the global mining industry, China relies heavily on imports in order to fulfil growing demands for the critical minerals – such as iron, copper, cobalt and lithium – used to build the infrastructure of today and tomorrow. In fact, 60% of China’s critical minerals need to be imported, and often from a small number of countries. To secure China’s access to important commodities, without needing to rely on third parties, the country is actively seeking to diversify its mineral portfolio by investing in mining projects all around the world.

However, operating Chinese-owned businesses on foreign soil has its own challenges. These businesses need to maintain contact with mainland China and with the mines themselves while at the same time ensuring that the staff on the ground speak a mixture of the local language and Chinese. Moreover, Chinese mining businesses prefer to employ high-quality mining machines on site to support high performance and efficiency. This is where Liebherr (China) Co., Ltd. comes in. Based in Shanghai but connected to Liebherr Mining’s global network of factories and sales and service companies, Liebherr China is well positioned to connect Chinese mining businesses with the Liebherr equipment and support services required to unearth the critical minerals China needs.

Supporting customers wherever they are

Liebherr China is recognised as a full service provider within the Chinese mining industry for both domestic and international projects. With an experienced sales and service team based in China, as well as access to Liebherr Mining’s global network of experts, support and machines, the company is able to support customers across a wide range of requirements, wherever they happen to be located. Plus, the shared cultural and linguistic background between Liebherr China and their customers allows the company to better understand customers’ requirements and communicate these when customers are expanding their mining businesses overseas.

For international mining projects involving Chinese customers, Liebherr China acts as a key coordinator between the customer and the wider Liebherr Mining organisation. Depending on the specific project, Liebherr China coordinates communication, customer requirements and technical support with the responsible production companies: Liebherr-Export AG, a department within the Liebherr Group that handles export markets across multiple product segments; local Liebherr sales and service organisations; and approved service partners. By working together as one Liebherr team, the responsibilities of each party are defined on a project-by-project basis, taking into account applicable business rules, compliance requirements and local regulations.

Liebherr China’s ability to be a true support to customers is something Armin Natter, Liebherr China’s general manager for earthmoving and mining equipment, is exceptionally proud of.

‘Conducting business in countries with completely different cultures and languages is a complicated process,’ says Natter. ‘Knowing our customers are confident in our ability to help them navigate part of it is truly an honour.’

While helping Chinese businesses with equipment and technical support for their overseas mines is an important part of what Liebherr China does, it’s not all that it does. The company also works with international mining businesses that have projects within China’s borders. These businesses have often worked with Liebherr mining equipment on their sites outside China and so know they can rely on Liebherr sales and service companies for quality equipment as well as for parts supply and routine machine maintenance.

The nuts and bolts of international support

There are a range of different ways that Liebherr China can support Chinese mining businesses working internationally. This support depends on what is already available in the area and what needs to be brought in – which differs depending on where in the world a customer’s site is located.

Taking the lead

If there is no existing Liebherr Mining presence in the area around the customer’s mine, Liebherr China becomes responsible for everything: getting the customer their Liebherr equipment, training onsite personnel and even organising spare parts. It’s also the company’s responsibility to find a partner on the ground that can look after the customer and their new Liebherr machine, or machines, on a day-to-day basis. This partner becomes the customer’s service provider, helping with routine maintenance, emergency repairs and spare parts.

There are specific criteria that Liebherr China looks for when choosing a sales and service partner: the business must be based in China, be familiar with the habits and internal procedures of large mining companies and be able to assign a service team to the customer’s site.

‘A suitable sales and service partner for Liebherr China is one that can advocate for our products with local mining companies while also providing expert assistance to our customers. We work alongside these partners to supply products and solutions that meet customer requirements and help to maintain the performance of our equipment,’ explains Natter. ‘We have already developed partnerships with several businesses for customers around the world and will continue developing these partnerships to meet the requirements of new customers.’

Once a suitable partner has been found, Liebherr China provides training to ensure everyone working with the machines has the necessary expertise to perform scheduled maintenance and to quickly resolve any unexpected issues that may arise. In some cases, the technicians from Liebherr China are embedded on site to ensure training is kept up to date.

‘One of our customers has an enormous fleet of Liebherr machines operating in Pakistan. Because there was no Liebherr presence in the area, a team of our technicians is assigned to the site to keep the machines running smoothly,’ says Natter. ‘Our technicians also organise weekly meetings with onsite personnel to share information about any challenges that have arisen and how these were rectified to ensure that everyone knows how to prevent the same issues happening again.’

Teamwork makes the dream work

For some regions around the world, Liebherr China can work alongside Liebherr-Export to facilitate equipment deals and the subsequent machine support services. In these cases, Liebherr-Export generally has a dealer that they use in the region for machine maintenance and spare parts. However, Liebherr China is responsible for ensuring that the services provided by the dealer include Chinese-speaking personnel. If the dealer is unable to provide this, Liebherr China then embeds a team of its engineers on site.

‘We have a customer that operates in Serbia with a number of our electric-drive mining excavators. To support round-the-clock machine operation, Liebherr China arranged for onsite service engineers to be responsible for training, machine maintenance and troubleshooting. A service team from Liebherr China’s Chinese agent takes care of regular maintenance and repair work and Liebherr-Export and its local dealer are responsible for parts stock and coordination with factory,’ says Natter.

Leveraging one another’s expertise

In some cases, it may be a Liebherr Mining sales and service company that reaches out to Liebherr China for assistance in approaching a Chinese mining business operating in their region. In these cases, Liebherr China then becomes responsible for communication with the business: working with the customer to find a suitable equipment solution, liaising with the appropriate equipment factory to organise machine delivery and commissioning and installing technicians from Liebherr China on site to oversee personnel training and to ensure there is Chinese-speaking staff on site.

‘The level of our involvement in these instances can differ,’ explains Natter. ‘If the local sales and service company can provide Chinese-speaking staff and a sufficient amount of onsite support for the machines, our involvement could well be minimal, likely not requiring any embedded employees from Liebherr China. However, if the sales and service company does not have enough resources to appropriately support the customer, we would then step in and fill in any gaps in the workforce with our own team members.’

Liebherr Mining as one team

Natter is exceptionally proud of the work Liebherr China accomplishes for customers within China as well as those spread across the globe. There is no one-size-fits-all model for supporting Chinese mining customers internationally. This is where Liebherr China’s ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to determine which team is best placed to handle specific tasks for their customers really comes in handy.

‘Like all of our Liebherr Mining colleagues around the world, Liebherr China strives to provide our customers with products and services tailored to their operational needs. We are excited to be able to help our customers realise their international mining ambitions in a way that highlights Liebherr Mining’s willingness and ability to share resources, knowledge and experience with colleagues and customers alike,’ enthuses Natter. ‘In fact, the Liebherr China team recently worked with our production facility in France as well as our sales and service company in Ghana to secure a deal with a gold mine project for the supply of two electric excavators.’

Published October 2026