Andreas Ritschel is a man who clearly loves his job. Even on holiday with his wife, cranes are still on his mind.
“Liebherr is a landmark in ports,” he says. “When you drive along the coast and see those towers sticking up in the skyline, it means something. When I am with my wife on vacation and I know there are mobile harbour cranes nearby, I have to go there to take a selfie in front of them.
“It took my wife some years to accept that this would be a part of our vacations, but now she loves it – often she is the one to see the cranes first and suggest that we go to see them.”
Andreas has spent most of his 13-years with Liebherr in sales roles but originally had intended to follow a much more technical career path. He started as a car mechanic in 1999, but after five years went to university. He studied mechanical engineering, achieving both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
Engineering background
A career in engineering beckoned. However, it began not with cranes, but with fish, in the port city of Rostock on Germany’s Baltic coast.
“I was looking for a topic for the final part of my master’s degree,” he says. “I went to a production facility here in Rostock with the idea of developing a machine that defrosts frozen fish. I asked around the fish processing plants for permission to look at their daily operations. One said yes, provided I worked for six hours per day on the lines, with my shifts starting at 5am. The other two hours per day I could go around and ask questions.”
Impressed with his work, the company offered him a job as a project manager for developing a new salmon smokehouse in Rostock.
“This was my entry into project work – I was on a construction site, talking to lots of different people and various suppliers, in order to align several tasks at once. I ran this as a technical manager, so this was the step from being in front of a computer to talking to people.”
At this time, Liebherr was planning significant investment in mobile harbour crane production at Rostock and offered him a similar role.
From there, he was headhunted for a sales role after impressing management with his communication skills. “In terms of the skills for sales, I was not the one who saw it,” he says.
“They saw that I had good communications skills as well as the technical background and approached me. It was not my original plan, but it was absolutely the right decision for me. I never saw myself sitting behind a desk, in front of a computer. I really like to be in touch with people.”
Promotions quickly followed, including regional sales roles in the US and central Europe, the deputy general manager of sales for almost three years before taking on his current role in February 2024.
“My general background helped me to understand the products, the full complexity of the machines and the customer’s needs,” he says. “I believe it is the best basis for doing this job, as it helped me a lot to understand where our customers are coming from – and when I talk to their technicians in the port, they know I know what I am talking about.”
Changing conversations
After more than a decade in sales, he has noted a significant shift in customer conversations.
“When I started 12 or 13 years ago in sales, the conversations were different,” he says. “Back then it was all about price of the crane and container output per hour or how many tonnes of bulk per hour. Of course, we still talk about those factors a little bit in our discussions, but there are other priorities also.”
Today, that priority is sustainability. “Back in 2015, when I talked to a CFO or CEO about electric drive, they would ask about how much it would save them in energy costs compared to diesel. This has completely changed and it is not really about the money anymore; it is all about saving emissions.
“This is a genuine change in the mindset of our clients. The demand for electrification has increased by 300–400% in the last few years and it now accounts for about half of our cranes sold.
“All equipment in the port, from reach stackers to RTGs, are now moving to electric. Electrification comes to the port anyway due to demand for ship-to-shore power for ferries and cruise ships. We have to electrify the pier, so why not use this power for the cranes as well?”
For Liebherr, its targets are versatile ports rather than container terminals. “The mobile harbour crane is like a Swiss army knife, you can do everything with it,” he says. “If a port has only containers, then an STS crane is the best investment. But the multi-purpose ports want multi-purpose equipment. They need to be versatile so they can handle steel or construction materials, as well as containers or bulk commodities.”
Often, mid-sized ports have less pier available, making them easier to electrify than the bigger terminals. “When you look at a new project, overall, most major port developments happening in the world right now are on greenfield sites,” he adds. “So they are building from scratch and are already thinking about what power they need and how to incorporate electric equipment.”
The cranes also have to be able to work on sites with significant variations in voltage. Liebherr considers low voltage as under 1kV and high voltage up to 20kV. Each has very different infrastructure such as cabling and grid connection. “At Liebherr, compatibility is key,” he says. “Ports differ in their requirements, so we ensure our cranes can work with both. We make sure that the cranes are matching because it varies from port to port. And, of course, if there is still a need for diesel cranes, we can offer very efficient models.”
Ongoing success
Liebherr Maritime Cranes recently announced that it had secured a ‘commanding majority of global orders’ in 2025 and record market share in the mobile harbour crane sector. In an increasingly competitive global environment, why are port operators choosing Liebherr?
“There are two major pillars of our success,” he says. “One is the reliability and high performance of our products. The other big pillar is the service and distribution network.
“The price is certainly higher than Chinese equipment, but our cranes come with a huge support network and 76 years of experience in how to handle international markets. Our customers trust us and are inclined to stick with us.”
Every conversation starts with vessel size and cargo turnover metrics, as well as available budget. “Budget is important because, these days, buying a crane is a bit like buying a car,” he says. “You have the standard model and can then add various options and upgrades.
“You can put a lot of benefits into a crane, such as electric drive or energy saving technology, as well as safety features or crane driver assistant systems. But depending on budget and requirements, you can also leave them out. Sometimes you install the crane and then after a couple of years when it has earned good money, we can upgrade that crane or even replace it.”
Job satisfaction
He still takes great pride in every sale. “Often you are working on a project for two years or more, so you do get a real sense of achievement when you complete a sale. I am always very proud of my team when this happens. I am grateful to work with well-trained and educated, highly motivated salespeople who have passion for their product.”
The people element remains his favourite part of the job. “When I am at exhibitions like TOC or Breakbulk and all the clients are coming to tell me how happy they are with their cranes, that buying Liebherr was one of their best decisions – that is a great feeling.”
