What role does Chile play in your global strategy?

Liebherr is a global company with over 130 individual companies. In our mining division we have companies all over the world that provide sales and services. Liebherr Chile is very important as it is a large mining country and has a good exposure to copper, lithium, and iron ore. We have put an emphasis on Australia, Indonesia, and South Africa for coal and iron ore, but we would also like to focus our business on Chile and Peru to get more commodity diversity.

Liebherr has been in Chile since 2001. We have 44 trucks operating and 20 excavators. The trucks operating are T282B and C models, which are 363-tonne ultra-class trucks. We also have 996B 600-tonne excavators and some smaller R9350 and R984C excavators. We currently have trucks at the Radomiro Tomic, Chuquicamata, and Collahuasi mines. We have excavators at the Centinela mine, and mining contracting companies EPSA, ICV, and Exxcom have some of our machines operating.

What steps is Liebherr taking toward innovation?

With our trucks and excavators we have our Litronic management systems and use our own internal components and control systems that are developed in-house. Through our sister companies we build many of our own mechanical and electronic components that are specifically built for our equipment, as opposed to equipment produced by a third-party supplier. We feel that this really gives our equipment an advantage when it comes to fuel economy and performance, as we can control all the stages of machine development. To support our equipment in Chile we have a repair facility in La Negra, Antofagasta, where we can re-manufacture our components.

We also have a Global Mining Service Excellence Program. This is where we measure all Liebherr mining companies to our defined standards.

How important is training to Liebherr?

Personal development is key for any organization and is a core value of our company. We will not be a successful company if we do not invest in our employees. As we have our own components and machine management systems, we have to train our people specifically on these systems. For our technicians we have a five-level training program that starts with our basic online courses that we developed for excavators and trucks. We also have classroom-based training where many of the intermediate courses are held. Levels four and five are our technical specialists and this training is completed in Chile or at our factories. There are three full-time trainers based in Chile; two for the mine services and one dedicated to the workshop. They train with the help of our T282C electrical simulator. Our factories also invest heavily in their training centers with full simulators and we have factory-based technical experts available to train on our trucks, excavators, and components.

We also believe that we need to develop our administrative, supervision, and management staff and have regular training sessions on our internal systems. Our supervisors and managers regularly attend internal and external seminars and workshops for planning and product support management and we spend considerable time on management coaching. Finally, we also offer training for our clients, including operator and mechanical training, depending on what their requirements are that follow our in-house training principals.

Can you describe the efforts that are being made in Peru?

Peru is a very exciting country for us with a diverse commodity base, so it fits well into our global diversification strategy. In 2016, Liebherr was looking for a distributer in Peru. This did not work out, however, so we reassessed our strategy. We are currently in the final phases of getting board approval and then approval from the Liebherr family to start our own sales and service company.

Additionally, our trucks are strong high-altitude machines. Now, there are two choices in Peru for equipment from very strong companies, but we are still assessing what the dynamics are going to be with recent industry changes and how it will affect the market. Whatever happens, we have a sustainable business that will stand alone and compete. This is one of the strengths of a family-owned company. We think there is going to be a good opportunity for us in Peru because we can provide a more personalized service.

Do you have any final remarks on what Liebherr Chile is looking forward to?

Liebherr realizes that South America is a large and extremely important market for our future. We like being in South America and we see its great potential. Mining is cyclical and prices go up and down. We have to journey through the bad times as best as we can while preparing for the future and eventual market recovery. We believe that all of the improvements we have made over the last four years will put us in a good position to capitalize and look forward to an exciting future.