Euro Auctions' sales performance continues to soar

Leeds January sale provide construction industry with pricing benchmark for early 2023

WITH market confidence continuing to soar in the used construction and agricultural machinery markets, the recent January sale at Euro Auctions’ flagship site in Leeds showed a £44.4 million hammer total, providing the firm’s best-ever start to a new year.

With 547 vendors from 22 countries consigning equipment to the sale, it was the home nation that ruled the auction, with 480 sellers coming from the UK. In total, 5,432 lots went over the ramp, with the hammer total of £44.4 achieving a 13% increase on the previous sale in November/December when 4,509 lots achieved £38.9 million.

In just short of eight weeks, including Christmas, Euro Auctions managed to clear the Leeds yard and re-stock it to capacity with nearly 5,500 pieces of heavy construction and agricultural machinery and commercial vehicles.

With almost 5,000 bidders registered to take part in the sale, of which 831 were bidding for the first time, this was the most registrations at any Euro Auctions sale anywhere. There were 1,223 buyers at the sale, with 76% of all sales transacted via the Internet. Europe was the biggest buying region with 50% of the sales, of which 44% went to UK-based buyers, with the rest of the world making up the remainder.

Commenting on the January sale, Euro Auctions’ sales manager, Chris Osborne, said: ‘Euro Auctions, Leeds, is now, without doubt, the number one auction site in Europe for construction plant, agricultural machinery, and industrial equipment.

‘So many of our clients within various industries rely on Euro Auctions as a crucial part of their business model. They know there is another sale in the near future where we can offer their equipment to our huge global following of buyers, allowing them to achieve the maximum return for their assets as efficiently as possible.

‘Historically, January has always proved to be a strong sale in Leeds, and this year we had the highest number of bidders ever, with a huge volume of floor bidders across the three live days. Even compared with pre-Covid times, both auction rings were completely packed out for the duration of the sale week.

‘We also consistently see in excess of 700 new bidders register for each Leeds auction and this has been the case for a number of years. The constant addition of active buyers to our established global customer base means we can consistently get the results we do, selling £45 million worth of equipment every six weeks or so. Without having that pool of global buyers, the sheer scale of what we do just wouldn’t be possible.’

Mr Osborne continued: ‘Since the retraction of the Ritchie Bros. takeover bid in March 2022, Euro Auctions’ business in Leeds has really stepped up to another level. The sales managers, not just in the UK, but globally, are now being offered more stock for each sale than ever before.

‘The used construction and agricultural machinery sectors also use our Leeds sale in January to ‘price check’ the market for the new year ahead. Setting market value for the next three to six months, the Leeds sale sets the bar. Because of the volumes that we sell and because everything sells, it is recognized globally as realizing true market value.’

Mr Osborne added: ‘This January, we saw a noticeably higher number of equipment ‘fleets’ making their way to us to be sold. This shows that operators are finally getting stock through from OEMs, which is good for the used equipment industry and great for our buyers. We are now seeing rental and construction companies disposing of large multiples of the same machine makes, models and years, making room for new machines to be delivered. This buoyancy in the market is good for buyers and sellers alike.’