Ritchie Bros. says it has set a new record, selling more than 35,000 equipment items and trucks in 29 online auctions across five countries in five days.
The online quarrying and construction equipment auctioneer adds that this makes it the busiest week in the company’s 60-year-plus history.
With all auctions held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ritchie Bros. has also had its highest levels of online traffic, with more than 2.5 million visits to its online platforms in five days (June 22–26). This includes the company’s busiest day ever on Wednesday, June 24, when there were more than 212,000 visits to rbauction.com in a single day.
“We continue to see record attendance at our auctions around the world as more and more of our customers get used to participating in our auctions online,” said Ann Fandozzi, chief executive officer, Ritchie Bros.
Total gross transaction proceeds for the week surpassed US$295mn, including a more than US$43mn auction in Houston, TX; a US$47+mn Northeast Regional auction; and US$69+mn auction in Edmonton, AB.
More than 9,100 bidders from 61 countries registered to bid for the June 23–24 Houston auction. Approximately 47% of the equipment was purchased by out-of-state buyers from locations including Vietnam, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. Highlights from this auction included a 2014 Caterpillar D6N LGP dozer (Lot 214) that sold for US$150,000 to a buyer from Texas.
Over 9,500 items were sold at the Edmonton, AB auction over three days. Approximately 45% of the equipment in the auction was sold to buyers from outside the province, including a 2013 Mack MRU613 Telebelt conveyor truck (Lot 426) that sold for US$291,471 (CA$395,000) to a buyer from California and a 2013 John Deere 410E 6×6 articulated dump truck (Lot 838) that sold for US$184,475 (CA$250,000) to a buyer from British Columbia.
With its first-ever Northeast Regional event, Ritchie Bros. combined equipment from four locations—North East, MD; North Franklin, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; and Williamsport, PA—into one auction. More than 5,700 items were sold in the June 23–24 Northeast event, including a 2013 Caterpillar 825H soil compactor (Lot 860 S) that sold for US$325,000 to a buyer from North Carolina and a 2015 Comacchio MC22AHT crawler blast hole drill (Lot 1104) that sold for US$260,000 to a buyer from New York. In total, more than 7,900 bidders from 64 countries registered for the two-day auction.
