British equipment auction specialist Euro Auctions recorded a final hammer total of $53.3m in sales at its latest auction in Leeds late last month, calling it the single largest used plant and equipment auction held anywhere in Europe in recent years.
A total of 4,738 lots of industrial plant, construction machinery and agricultural equipment were sold in the record-breaking three-day auction, said Euro Auctions in a statement.
“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the Leeds auction, which saw a number of records broken. We are pleased to break the £40m ($52.5m) barrier, but equally we are pleased with the record number of first-time registers and the first-time buyers that attended the auction,” said Jonnie Keys, operations manager, Euro Auctions.
“This can be attributed to the massive show of equipment available from around the world and in particular consignments from some of the largest rental companies including Ardent, Charles Wilson, Lynch and A-Plant, as they continue their aggressive plant renewal programmes. Also pleasing to see was equipment being sold to all continents, which demonstrates the recovery in the construction sector around the world and in particular the South American countries which have been slow for a while now.
“A record number of 522 vendors from across the globe, including almost 50 first-time consignors, entrusted Euro Auctions to maximise interest in their equipment through our sustained pre-auction marketing. We also achieved an excellent turnout with over 2,200 bidders participating from 70 countries. Buyers from across the UK, Ireland and Europe again topped the tables but we saw significant added interest from the USA, the Middle East and Australasia, with almost 1,000 buyers coming from all continents across the world.”
Around 60% of all winning bids were placed by bidders actually attending the event, while the remaining 40% came from online bidders, Euro Auctions added. Excavators were the single largest equipment category at the auction, with 693 to choose from. Included in this were approximately 300 mini excavators, 110 6t-plus, 117 10t-plus and around 150 20t-plus capacity excavator models.
Also included were over 250 telehandlers, around 50 each of backhoes, dozers, forklifts, skid-steer loaders and articulated dump trucks, plus over 100 wheeled loaders and wheeled excavators, the auctioneer added. The top hammer total went to a 2014 CAT D6T dozer, which sold for £187,000.
With Euro Auctions recently having opened its Dubai facility, which will see its first auction on September 13, Keys added: “Euro Auctions is now a truly international player and we are seeing strong interest in all our auctions around the globe. We have two new locations, Dubai and Hong Kong, both holding their first sales in September, further expanding our reach and appeal. Our online presence is also attracting significant interest, and traffic to our website during the three-day sale was up over 25% on the previous auction with an almost 40% increase in new users to the site. Compared to the same period last year traffic was up over 30%.”
