Machinery Sales Report: November 2009

November.. a month to celebrate many worthy events: Remembrance Day on the 11th, Scotland’s St Andrews Day on the 30th, my sons birthday on the 13th and now we can all joyously celebrate “Record November Sale Day” as…. well, perhaps I don’t need to add anything else except the following:

A good entry of circa 2300 lots including some 461 tractors were on offer and as the gates opened at 9:00 it was quite evident that plenty of people had journeyed through the thick mist to attend the sale although expectations were far from positive. As the day progressed however, the fog began to lift and so did everyone’s mood as it became evident that we were in for yet another good sale with some noticeable highlights.

Over the last few years, various nationalities have been well represented at the sales. Firstly the Irish attended en-masse and dominated the sales for many years. With the ending of the cold war “the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming..” but never did - although their Warsaw Pact allies from Poland, Romania, Lithuania etc certainly arrived and provided a much appreciated boost to the sales over the last 3 years or so. But it was, however, Spain which provided the main tractor buyers for the sale on the 9th.

Now I’m not quite sure what the collective noun for a group of Spanish guys is but “noisy” would certainly be one of them. Once grouped together and once presented with a line up of John Deere tractors, the noise got louder as many tractors fell to the closing bid of their main man, a suave night club owner who mixes a stiff G and T (hint for Christmas!) faster than Tom Cruise in the film Cocktail! I suppose it was almost like a Spanish bull fight: the auctioneer the Matador, albeit without red cape, sequined waistcoat and sharp pointy sword and the bidder the bull! After a series of skilfull moves by the Matador, the final Coup de Grace was made as the hammer fell, yet another tractor was sold and the assembled crowd (particularly the vendor) shouted out an appreciative “Olè”, wonderful stuff!

Of the tractor line up certainly John Deere 6000, 10 and 20 series sold well but also top spec 30 series found new homes. We had a 6930 TLS, 50KPH and 2007 in the year make £34,500, a 2008 version showing 3600hrs sold to a Polish buyer for £38,000, a standard spec 2008 7430 is Spanish bound at £43,800 and 2007 JD 7530 with 50kph and the all important TLS seemed good value at £38,600.

Masseys and New Holland, the preserve of our Southern Irish buyers, struggled this month as the recession in the Emerald Isle continues to bite. Some of the cleaner examples did find their way to UK buyers: a plain but low houred Y reg’d MF 4245 made £9300, a 4255 sold for £10,800 and a razor sharp 390T, 1997 in the year and showing a mere 1900 hours made all the money at £13,700.

Once again trade in Tractor sale 2 featuring Massey 1 2 and 5 series, Zetors and wreckers row was more than acceptable as UK exporters vied with Lebanese and Cypriot buyers. Prices for Massey 590’s were on a par with last month: £2-2,600, 165’s made £1200-2200 depending on spec’ and the trade for the ever popular 135 hardened as prices ranged from £2-3000. Zetors sold better than the last few months as many examples, good, bad and very ugly found their way into Polish hands: a good 7540 achieved £7200, a bad 6245 sold for £3750 and an uglier than sin 6911 topped £260!!

The smallest entry of 3CXs in the Plant section for several years prompted expectations of higher prices. These expectations were fulfilled as far as the late 90’s and 2000’s machines were concerned with strong demand particularly from the Middle East. The older, late 80’s models were in less demand and those that sold, mainly went to home buyers. Later telescopics fared better than in recent months with European and UK buyers pushing some machines well over reserve. Still plenty unsold but that market does seem to be improving slightly. Two late and very well presented larger excavators sold well, in particular a very nice 2005 Volvo EC360 BLC will be heading to the Middle East with a £47000 plus price tag. Older telescopics continue to do well mainly to the Eastern European countries and the home trade. Mini diggers mainly sold well to keen bidding from the UK, France, Belgium, Poland and the Lebanon. We even managed to get a few dumpers away this month, mainly at the cheaper end. Rollers also were in demand with several going off to Uganda. Compressors sold well to Poland, Lebanon, UAE and the UK. Overall a brighter trade than of late and better than expected. Perhaps there is a light at the end of the recession tunnel.

A very large entry of agricultural machines attracted much interest, with over 65% of the 750 lots finding new homes in Eire, Poland, France and the UK. Trade for small Ferguson implements saw many ploughs, ridgers and pan busters realising high prices, a ridger at £340 was the top price paid, also a Lemkin 2 furrow match plough sold well at £800. Larger machines like trailers and trailed sprayers sold well, a Bailey 4 ton at £5450, a 2005 year 18 ton at £4250 and a Hardi Commander made the top sprayer price of the day at £11600. The only real disappointment in this section were the large ploughs which were tough going due to the lack of European buyers in this section. A few highlights did shine above the rest, a large 6.2m set of Kverneland rolls at £6700, a trailed 3.2m Kverneland mower at £7800 and a Claas 260 baler at £7300, which illustrated out of season machines can still make the money.

Our next sale is on Monday 7th December 2009.