diff --git a/qmake/generators/win32/mingw_make.cpp b/qmake/generators/win32/mingw_make.cpp
index 8d5a9a7d0fc..b9895fb10dc 100644
--- a/qmake/generators/win32/mingw_make.cpp
+++ b/qmake/generators/win32/mingw_make.cpp
@@ -36,6 +36,12 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <time.h>
 
+#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
+#define NULL_DEVICE "NUL"
+#else
+#define NULL_DEVICE "/dev/null"
+#endif
+
 QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
 
 MingwMakefileGenerator::MingwMakefileGenerator() : Win32MakefileGenerator()
@@ -318,6 +324,7 @@ void MingwMakefileGenerator::writeBuildRulesPart(QTextStream &t)
     if(!project->isEmpty("QMAKE_PRE_LINK"))
         t << "\n\t" <<var("QMAKE_PRE_LINK");
     if(project->isActiveConfig("staticlib") && project->first("TEMPLATE") == "lib") {
+        t << "\n\t-$(DEL_FILE) $(DESTDIR_TARGET) 2>" NULL_DEVICE;
         if (project->values("OBJECTS").count() < var("QMAKE_LINK_OBJECT_MAX").toInt()) {
             t << "\n\t$(LIB) $(DESTDIR_TARGET) " << objectsLinkLine << " " ;
         } else {