World eyes on big sale

Foreign buyers bid for equipment

THREE overseas buyers featured among the top sales as hundreds of trucks and earthmoving equipment were sold at auction by Richie Bros at Corio yesterday.

A 10-year-old Caterpillar articulated dump truck which pulled in $267,500 (pictured) was the highest-valued asset of more than 1400 lots sold.

Almost 170 of the 1739 registered buyers were from overseas, with buyers from New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong making some of the highest purchases.

Richie Bros marketing manager David Fanning said the company was seeing high demand around the world for used construction equipment after manufacturers slowed production during the global financial crisis.

“Because those assets aren’t there — you have older assets in play . . . and younger assets which are generally more expensive — we are seeing high demand in the good used equipment market,” Mr Fanning said.

Thirty prime movers also went up the ramp in front of the main 670-seat auction theatre.

Buyers, brokers and dealers were among the hundreds on hand during the frenetic auction with 812 of the registered buyers involved in the auction online.

Since opening the complex in 2013, Ritchie Bros has sold more than 22,000 pieces of heavy equipment worth more than $340 million to 9000 buyers.

Construction gear has been the biggest seller over the past five years (almost half of all sales), closely followed by transport.