Liebherr reported on 19 April that mining turnover dipped 9.8% to €964 million (US$1.1 billion) compared to last year, while its number of employees in the sector fell 3.6% to 3,862.

However, the company's investment in the sector grew 25% to €40 million.

"Despite the industry's usual resilience, the global mining industry experienced a downturn in 2020. This resulted in losses in revenue and profits in the resources industry. It, however, also made the industry focus on future-looking trends, such as increased digitalisation autonomy, and automation", said the firm.

"For 2021, Liebherr expects the mining industry to recover. Major technology trends such as digitalisation, autonomy and zero emissions will be a focus of research and development activities".

Despite the financial pressures, technological highlights in the year included Liebherr's work with VA Erzberg to develop a trolley assist system for the T 236 diesel-electric mining truck.

Other developments included the introduction of new Tier 4 engine configurations for the PR 776 crawler tractor and for the R 9100B, R 9150B and R 9800 exca¬vators, to match new emissions regulations standards.

A new digital product suite, "Operational Excellence", was introduced in the first ultra-class excavator model including truck loading assistant, performance monitoring, application severity and operational conformance features.