March was a big month on the auction front, with “unprecedented demand resulting in strong pricing across nearly all equipment categories,” says Doug Olive, Ritchie Bros. senior vice president, pricing.
Looking at the results from its U.S. regional auctions and online events, Ritchie has “seen demand skyrocket” during the month, Olive says. The online regional events attracted more than 11,000 online bidders each, according to Ritchie’s latest Used Equipment Market Trends report.
With the March edition of the report, Ritchie split its earthmoving Index into medium earthmoving and large earthmoving indexes. The large earthmoving index includes excavators, wheel loaders, backhoes, articulated dump trucks, motor graders, scrapers, wheeled excavators, wheel dozers, track loaders and soil compactors.
For the three months ending in March, prices in this segment increased by 5% compared to the same time frame in 2020.
The medium earthmoving segment includes skid steers, compact track loaders, compact excavators and midi excavators. Prices in this segment increased 15% compared to the the same period last year.
For the first quarter, prices for used truck tractors increased by 9% and used vocational truck prices increased by 2% compared to the same period in 2020.
Top selling models
Top U.S. selling models sold at Ritchie auctions by volume in March were as follows:
Excavators: Deere 135G, Cat 349F L, Cat 336F L.
Crawler tractors: Cat D6T, Cat D6N, Komatsu D275.
Articulated dump trucks: Volvo A35E, Volvo A35C, Terex TA300
Skid steers: Bobcat S530, Bobcat S510, Cat 272D2
Compact track loaders: Bobcat T590, Cat 289D, Cat 259D
Compact excavators: Deere 27D, Deere 75G, Deere 50G
Tri-axle trucks: Kenworth T800, Peterbilt 389, Peterbilt 388
Telescopic handlers: Skytrak 8042, Skytrak 6042, Skytrak 10054
Boom lifts: JLG 600AJ, JLG E300AJP, JLG 800AJ
Buyers and sellers
Buyers and sellers in Texas led the way in used equipment auction sales in the first three months of 2021.
Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and California rounded out the top selling regions. On the buying side, in addition to Texas, the top areas for buyers were California, Florida and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta.