Buyers looking for quality used and near new construction plant and agricultural equipment are turning to auctions in their droves to satisfy demand – helping Euro Auctions achieve over 15 percent growth on its previous best sale.
At the beginning of April, Euro Auctions held a three-day unreserved auction, the 79th event at its expanded Leeds site. Over 4,500 consignments went under the hammer, achieving £37.3 million; topping the previous hammer total of £32.2 million as reported from this years’ auction in January.
“Our last Leeds sale saw a massive jump in the overall hammer total achieved, as demand for quality plant and equipment has soared over recent months, partly due to increased volumes being consigned but also as higher demand is driving prices up across the board,” stated Jonnie Keys, Operations Manager for Euro Auctions.
“Leeds consistently attracts quality, low hours, interesting and sometimes unusual consignments from right across the UK and Europe, which in turn appeal to our growing base of loyal customers, resulting in considerable interest and competitive bidding.
“The exchange rate between the pound and Euro is a contributing factor but confidence is also beginning to return to sectors of the economy and businesses are increasingly prepared to invest in and upgrade existing equipment as they speculate in growth.”
“The recent sale in Leeds broke a number of previous records. Not only was it the best hammer price reported for one of our ‘mainstream’ auctions ever, we had a fantastic spread of equipment, providing bidders with real choice.
“We also again approached the maximum number of lots we can realistically handle at a three day sale, despite using three separate sales rings throughout, and with an extended finish time on the first day.”
Almost 2200 people from over 60 countries registered as bidders for this Leeds auction, with some 900 of them ultimately placing winning bids.
Online registration is also proving increasingly popular with 52% of all bidders signing up via this route although more than half of all final bids went to people actually attending the auction as this gives then the added opportunity to personally inspect the items before committing to bidding.
European buyers acquired over 90% of all lots sold with 3.2% of the sales destined for the Middle East and 2.6% of the total to North America. Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania each reported a smattering of sales.
Excavators featured prominently in this sale with a massive choice of almost 300 mini excavators, 67 6-tonnes units, 115 10-tonne machines a 135 20-tonne models being consigned, many being high specification, low hours, late registration units with a number classified as unused.
For example, there was a choice of unused 2016 Bobcat E85’s that sold for around the £51,000 mark. There was also a choice of unused Doosan DX225LC-3’s that each went for £80,000 and a selection of unused New Holland E175LC’s that each went for around £54,000.
At the other end of the spectrum a bidder picked up a well used but still well maintained 2008 Volvo EC160CL for just £17,000.
This auction also featured over 80 dumpers, many of which were articulated, including a choice of Volvo A40F’s that each went for just over the £90k mark while a choice of well maintained, low hours 09 registered Volvo A40E’s went for £44k each.
There was also a good choice of dozers, over 200 telehandlers, 100+ rollers, and array of skid steer and wheeled loaders, dozers, agricultural tractors, commercial lorries and trailers, plus scissor lifts and cherry pickers, crushing and screening equipment and all manner of miscellaneous small plant, generators and related equipment.
Then moving away from traditional construction plant and equipment there was a whole range of lots including seven Tennant ‘Green Machine’ 424TR ride-on, easy to operate cleaners for public spaces that sold for £1,500 plus a choice of off-road utility vehicles including a 2012 New Holland Rustler 120 and a 2010 Polaris Ranger 700.
There was also a selection of over 150 ‘transit and flatbed’ vans from the likes of Ford, VW, Iveco and Mercedes in a choice of cab and access combinations plus a number of 4×4 crew vans and luxury cars including a 2015 Mercedes 
C220 AMG line, a 2016 BMW 520d M sport with just 4000 miles on the clock and an unused 2017 Range Rover Sport 3.0 SDV6 HSE Auto.
Several of the lots that went under the hammer at Leeds weren’t actually at the auction site due to their physical size and the logistics that would have been involved in transporting them to the sale.
One such lot was a Blast and Spray shed that stands more than six metres high which sold for £20,000.
This will now be dismantled and transported to a new site in Northern Ireland. There was also a complete Utranzz T3 mobile concrete batching plant complete with silos control panel and this went for £28,000 and will moved to a new location.
“We are increasingly being approached by consignors to include and auction off more ‘unusual’ pieces of plant and machinery within our sales,” continued Jonnie Keys.
“If we feel that a lot will generate interest amongst our buyers then we’ll certainly consider including it in an upcoming sale because there is inevitably someone, somewhere that will be keen to bid on and buy it.”
Euro Auctions’ 26 acre Leeds auction site underwent a massive expansion in 2016 with the acquisition of an adjacent 80 acre plot of land.
All the necessary infrastructure including the administrative offices, visitor parking, ancillary buildings and the main auction stages were already in place but as increasing volumes of used equipment is being assigned 40 acres of the acquired plot were immediately cleared and used to better display the equipment being auctioned.
Lots go under the hammer at the rate of one lot per minute in the main auction stage with two additional rings for smaller equipment also being used.
Full details and catalogues for all forthcoming Euro Auctions events are available on its website at www.euroauctions.com
