Skip to main content

Ritchie Brothers hosts record-breaking auction

Auction firm Ritchie Bros has staged the world’s largest ever heavy equipment auction held between February 13 - 18. New records were set by Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers for gross auction proceeds (US$203million), number of lots sold (more than 10,000), total number of registered bidders (8,670), number of sellers (830), online gross auction proceeds (more than $47million) and number of online bidders (4,070). Every item during the six-day event in Orlando, Florida was sold to the highest bidder—regardless
April 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Auction firm 8031 Ritchie Bros has staged the world’s largest ever heavy equipment auction held between February 13 - 18.

New records were set by Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers for gross auction proceeds (US$203million), number of lots sold (more than 10,000), total number of registered bidders (8,670), number of sellers (830), online gross auction proceeds (more than $47million) and number of online bidders (4,070).

Every item during the six-day event in Orlando, Florida was sold to the highest bidder—regardless of price—without minimum bids or reserve prices.

"In more than 50 years of business we have never held or seen an equipment auction of this magnitude, and we thank our customers and our staff for being part of this historic week," said Peter Blake, chief executive of Ritchie Bros.

"We saw multiple auction records broken during this event and, as with all our auctions, it was a truly global marketplace in Orlando. Bidder participation from within Florida and around the world helped sellers achieve true global market value on the sale of their equipment. We begin 2012 confident that we're providing compelling solutions and value to the world's builders.”

More than 8,670 registered bidders from 88 countries, including all 50 US states, all Canadian provinces and two territories, participated both in-person and online during the record-breaking Orlando auction. More than $160million (or 79%) was sold to buyers located outside the state of Florida and more than US$73 million (or 36%) was sold to buyers outside the United States. Items were sold for more than 830 sellers from across the United States and around the world.

Among heavy equipment auctioned off were a number of articulated dump trucks, wheel loaders, crawler tractors, hydraulic excavators, rollers, mixers, and compactors.

Online records were also set during the epic auction: more than 4,070 of the registered bidders participated online using the Ritchie Bros real-time online bidding service, purchasing more than $47million of equipment. Internet bidders were winner or runner up bidder on 44% of the lots available online.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Postivite outlook for Spanish auction
    April 30, 2012
    Euro Auctions reports strong pre-auction registrations for its sale at Valencia in Spain on 30th September. The firm is also increasing its team in Spain with the appointment of two additional staff.
  • Colombia’s ANI agency is driving forward the 4G PPP programme
    April 4, 2016
    Andrade Moreno is a man on a mission. The head of Colombia's infrastructure agency ANI explains how the organisation is giving foreign companies increasing confidence to invest time and money in the country. David Arminas reports Change, especially when it touches the highest levels of South American business and politics, can bring with it personal danger. Luis Fernando Andrade Moreno, president of Colombia's National Infrastructure Agency - ANI - was aware of this when he took on the role in 2011. B
  • Asphalt exhibition planned for Turkey in 2014
    April 12, 2013
    In Turkey plans are now in hand for the country’s first Highway & Road Technologies Exhibition. This will be held from 6th-8th February 2014 at the Istanbul Expo Center (IFM) in Istanbul, Turkey and will be organised by Türkel Fair Organization. The event aims to attract international and domestic key manufacturers and industry players. The exhibition is set to be held in halls with a gross area of 10,000m2, plus outdoor exhibition areas. The organisers expect more than 200 companies to exhibit and 10,000 e
  • CECE 2018 conference Rome: the sector powers up for digitisation
    March 20, 2019
    Getting the human-machine interface for equipment automation right is a lot trickier than expected. David Arminas reports from the CECE conference in Rome For many contractors, digitisation is key for improving on-site operational efficiency. But it may be time to take stock of progress and examine what does and doesn’t work. That is not to say that the anchors should be thrown out to halt development. Far from it. In the past eight months, the CECE - Committee for European Construction Equipment – led