In North America, Europe and the Middle East, Ritchie Bros. has sold more than 200 cranes in five weeks at its first unreserved public auctions of 2012. By the end of April, about 90 cranes has already scheduled to be sold globally . Every crane was sold to the highest bidder with no minimum bids or reserve prices regardless of price. The highest dollar value crane sold so far this year was a 2008 Liebherr LTM1400-7.1 400-ton all terrain crane, which sold for US$2.1 million (€1.6 million) to an online bidder from India at a Ritchie Bros. auction in France on March 6.

So far in 2012, Ritchie Bros. has sold more than 70 rough terrain cranes, 25 all terrain cranes, 15 carry deck cranes, 15 crawler cranes, 10 conventional truck cranes, as well as 20 hydraulic truck cranes, 15 tower cranes, and more. These cranes have been sold in auctions held in the United States, Canada, Dubai, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

At its upcoming auctions around the world, the Company has close to 90 cranes already scheduled to be sold by the end of April. The line-up includes more than 40 rough terrain cranes, 15 hydraulic truck cranes, 10 all-terrain cranes, as well as conventional truck cranes, crawler cranes, and tower cranes.

In other company news, on March 20, Ritchie Bros. conducted its largest ever single-day heavy equipment auction selling more than AU$52 million (more than $54 million) of heavy equipment and trucks at its permanent auction site in Brisbane, QLD, Australia. The new record set in Brisbane surpassed the company's previous record by more than $20 million, which had been set in Minneapolis, Minn., in 2006.

More than 1,000 heavy equipment items were featured in the record-breaking auction, including hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, rock trucks, prime movers, telescopic forklifts, trailers and more; every item was sold to the highest bidder on auction day.

The Brisbane auction attracted more than 1,600 on-site and online bidders from 33 countries. More than AU$24 million (more than $26 million) or 47 percent of total gross auction proceeds was generated by buyers from outside the state of Queensland; while more than AU$50 million (more than $52 million) or 96 percent of total gross auction proceeds was generated by Australian buyers.

Additional auction highlights include an unused 2011 Caterpillar D9T crawler tractor, which sold for AU$1.02 million ($1.07 million) to a buyer from the Australian state of New South Wales; two unused 2011 Caterpillar 980H wheel loaders, which sold for AU$540,000 (more than $566,000) each to two separate buyers from Western Australia; and four 2007 Marshall Lethlean fuel tank trailers, which sold for AU$255,000 (more than $267,000) each to a local Queensland buyer.
 

Source:cmbol.com