Last week (February 17 - 22, 2014), Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers held the world's largest heavy equipment auction of 2014 in Orlando, Fla., selling 8,800+ items for more than $166 million. The six-day unreserved public auction set new company records for online sales, with online buyers generating more than US$54 million in gross auction proceeds, or 33 percent of total gross auction proceeds. Additional records broken at last week's auction include number of online registered bidders (4,400+), number of online buyers (1,000+), and a new Orlando permanent auction site record of sellers (830+). Every item in the six-day, unreserved public auction was sold to the highest bidder, regardless of price -- without minimum bids or reserve prices.
"Our February auction in Orlando continues to be our company's largest auction each year and this year is no different," said Peter Blake, Ritchie Bros. CEO. "Due to the severe winter weather that hit the northeastern U.S. in recent weeks, many of the sellers from the region who normally participate in the auction were unable to free up equipment from their jobsites to add to last week's auction. We also noticed a lower volume of cranes in this year's inventory due to higher construction activity in the non-residential market. However, simultaneously we saw a more diverse and larger selection of equipment from the energy and transportation equipment categories than previous years."
More than 830 sellers sold their equipment at this year's Ritchie Bros. Orlando February auction.
More than 8,640 registered bidders from 84 countries, including all 50 U.S. states, all 10 Canadian provinces and one territory, participated both in person and online. More than $29 million was purchased by buyers from the state of Florida while more than $137 million (or 82 percent) was sold to buyers located outside the state, with more than $48 million (or 29 percent) being sold to buyers outside the country. Buyers participated from as far away as the United Arab Emirates, Guyana, Italy, Nigeria, Russia and Qatar.
"We have started another strong year at our February auction here in Florida," said Steve Kriebel, Regional Sales Manager, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. "We saw strong prices in many areas, more specifically in the backhoe, aerial, truck and trailer, motor grader and bulldozer categories. Even though our inventory count was slightly lower than in recent years, average sale prices were higher. Additionally, we sold 80 percent more one-to-three-year-old equipment items in our core equipment categories, including wheel loaders, bull dozers, rock trucks, excavators, motor graders and forklifts.
Auction quick facts
- Total Gross Auction Proceeds (in-person and online): more than $166 million
- Amount sold online: more than $54 million (* new company record)
- Unique registered bidders (total): more than 8,640
- Unique registered online bidders: more than 4,400 (* new company record)
- Online buyers: more than 1,000 (* new company record)
- Total number of lots sold: more than 8,800
- Total number of sellers: more than 830 (* new Orlando permanent auction site record)
The next Ritchie Bros. Orlando unreserved public auction is scheduled for May 15, 2014. Equipment owners interested in selling their equipment can contact the auction site at +1.863.420.9919.
There are more than 130 auctions listed in the upcoming Ritchie Bros. auction calendar.
