Chile – a country with many faces

…and we don’t just mean geographically. Chile, a country in South America measuring 4,275 km in length, is currently experiencing a booming economy and excellent prospects. The founder member of the UN and current OECD member on the Andes combines a whole host of superlatives, is a driving force behind Latin America and home to the three sites of Liebherr Chile S.p.A. So we have plenty of reasons to take a closer look at the country

That puts us on the trail of Robinson Crusoe who was shipwrecked over 300 years ago on the Juan Fernández Islands in the southern Pacific, which are part of Chile. The islands are over 600 km from the port city of Valparaíso – which actually puts them closer than the Antarctic Peninsular Cape Horn, which Chile also claims, around 1,000 km from Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America, which is also part of Chile. The central state with its 16 regions and a population of around 20 million features desert and ice, mountains and beaches as well as glaciers, lakes, lagoons, volcanoes and national parks. Travellers from all over the world regard Chile as an extraordinary adventure destination with excellent facilities for sports fans and nature lovers. The country also has unforgettable experiences to offer aficionados of wine and culture, cruise fans as well as those interested in astronomy and wildlife – with the habitat of alpacas, pumas, hummingbirds, penguins and pelicans extends over a distance equivalent to the centre of Denmark to the Sahara. Thousands of flamingos live in the salt lakes in this economically and socially stable country, whose incomes and living standards can bear any comparison on an international basis. Free trade agreements with the USA, EU and parts of Asia mean that trade is booming, with Chilean avocados and German cranes regularly making the smooth trip around the world.

Liebherr employs more than 400 people in Chile. The majority of them are based in the workshops at large copper mines providing maintenance services for Liebherr dump trucks and mining excavators. Liebherr Chile S.p.A. is based in the capital Santiago and is responsible for the sales and service of mining machines, maritime cranes, tower cranes as well as mobile and crawler cranes in Chile and neighbouring markets. To enable it to provide better service to the mines in the north of Chile, Liebherr has its own customer service centre, which is used by all the product divisions.

It also has a customer service centre specially for mobile and crawler cranes in the north of the capital near the international airport and right on the motorway. The EXPOMIN, the largest construction machinery show in the region, is held every two years very close by.

You will always find Hubertus von Sperber on the Liebherr stand at the EXPOMIN. He is Manager of the Mobile Cranes Division for Liebherr in Chile and believes that close ties with customers are both essential and the key to success: “Direct support, a local spare parts warehouse, training service engineers in Ehingen – all these things help us create long term partnerships.” And it is the personal relationships which are expressed by the warm way in which people greet each other, almost as if they were all one happy family: “Chile is a very happy, sociable country in which newcomers are received very openly. And what is more, even at business meals, they first talk about family, the children’s school and their last holiday, before they actually get to the crane or their construction project maybe during desert.”

Von Sperber has lived in Santiago since September 2018 and, apart from a single Brazilian, works with a purely Chilean team. “There are lots of very good personnel here, they are motivated and well educated.” Social gatherings also play a major role for the team and after two years of strict coronavirus restrictions, they can finally get back to their popular asados. Asados are what the Chileans call their legendary barbecues with “the best meat that I have ever eaten”, adds von Sperber. The only important thing to remember is that every time you are invited you should arrive a little late as punctuality is impolite in Chile. So says Hubertus von Sperber in a telephone interview and laughs at the memory of how he had to learn the whole procedure initially. He has also got used to the massive distances in the country, which is 20 times longer than it is wide. “Our engineers have to commute over distances equivalent to between Copenhagen and Algiers. Catching a plane here is like catching a bus!”

Around 400 Liebherr mobile cranes with lifting capacities of up to 1,200 t are currently operating in the Chilean market. “Chile has over 40 % of the established copper reserves in the world. It also has the largest copper mine in the world. That is why mining is one of the most important industries, with mines constantly being expanded and opened”, explains Felix Mussotter, who is responsible for Latin America within the sales team at Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH.

A whole host of mobile and crawler cranes from crane specialist Burger Grúas are used for the assembly, maintenance and repair of large mining machines. Managing Director Raul Burger says: “Our cranes are often used in mines, which are generally located at high altitudes. The fact that they need low temperature equipment and an altitude package means that modern, innovative machines are an absolute must here.”

Crane contractor MPM based in Santiago also frequently uses its cranes in mines. “We bought our first Liebherr mobile crane in 2017. Today we have ten of them in our fleet, all with lifting capacities between 100 and 1,200 tonnes. We can send them out to our customers with confidence thanks to their high safety standards, advanced technology and reliability”, says company owner Daniel Vega.

Energy of the future

One of the leading economic powers in Latin America and the largest producer of raw materials, there is also a great deal currently happening in Chile in the renewable energy sector. The objective is that 70 percent of the country’s energy requirements should be generated by sun, wind and water by 2050. The country’s long coastline, the enormous altitude differences and the expanse of the Atacama Desert mean that Chile has every chance of meeting this target. Mussotter continues: “The wide range of our large mobile and crawler cranes is required in the wind power sector. The large ones are needed to assemble the enormous turbines, whilst the medium and small ones are used for auxiliary and set-up work.”

Not only are our cranes used for special jobs in mines and high altitudes, they also tackle work in Chilean waters. For example, they help to hoist heavy nets filled with salmon and also to repair an historic sailing ship. The Buque Escuela Esmeralda is 75 years old, 113 metres long, 13 metres wide and has sails with an area of 2,870 square metres. You can only touch it with silk gloves – or with an LTM 1160-5.2, which Multiservice F.L. brought to the port of Valparaiso specially for it.

This article was published in the UpLoad magazine 02 | 2022.