Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, an industrial auctioneer, sold more than 110 cranes and millions of dollars of other heavy equipment and trucks at its unreserved public auctions last week, including a CA $58 million (U.S. $52 million) auction in Edmonton, Alberta, (June 10-11) and a U.S. $41 million auction in Houston (June 10-12).

More than 4,700 people from 18 countries registered to bid on-site and online at the unreserved auction conducted by Ritchie Bros. at its permanent auction site in Edmonton on June 10 and 11. The auction included more than 4,100 heavy equipment items and trucks. Among the items sold include 33 hydraulic truck, crawler, rough terrain and other cranes, including two 2002 Liebherr 200-ton crawler cranes that sold for CA $800,000 (U.S. $715,000) each.

More than 1,500 of the bidders registered to bid online in real time. Online bidders purchased more than CA $18 million (U.S. $16 million) of equipment — including an online bidder from Mexico who bought three cranes. Buyers from outside Alberta purchased CA $27 million (U.S. $24 million) of equipment (47 percent of the total).

“We had a really international crowd in Edmonton last week, with active bidding on both days over the internet,” said Jake Lawson, regional manager for Ritchie Bros. “We had a fantastic lineup of equipment to sell, including a large selection of cranes that attracted bidders from Mexico, Europe, the Middle East and all over North America to the site. Now that construction and oilfield work in Alberta has slowed down a little, reaching that international market is even more important for equipment sellers.”

Ritchie Bros. conducted the second auction at its new, larger permanent auction site in Houston, selling more than U.S. $41 million of equipment and trucks over three days. Almost 2,700 people from 47 countries, including all 50 U.S. states, registered to bid in person (54 percent) or online (46 percent) on more than 3,200 items, including 56 cranes that sold to buyers from as far away as India and the Middle East.

Online bidders purchased nearly U.S. $15 million of equipment (36 percent of the total gross auction proceeds), setting a new Houston site record for online sales. Out-of-state buyers purchased more than U.S. $22 million of equipment (55 percent), including more than U.S. $13 million of equipment (35 percent) purchased by people from outside the United States.

“We had a huge foreign contingent bidding in person and online at our Houston auction,” said Alan McVicker, regional manager for Ritchie Bros. “Cranes were definitely the highlight. The crane market is clearly still strong: prices were solid and they went to buyers from all over the world. Construction and transportation equipment also sold well. We’re able to consign and sell more equipment from our new larger site, and our close proximity to the international airport and shipping terminals makes it easy for us to serve a worldwide customer base. Once again, that global audience helped us deliver strong returns for our consignors.”

The auction also featured 49 concrete pump trucks from the complete dispersal for Pumpco Inc. Ritchie Bros. sold the remaining 37 concrete pump trucks from Pumpco in Atlanta on June 18. There are 67 other unreserved Ritchie Bros. auctions on the upcoming auction calendar at www.rbauction.com — including the company’s first ever auction in Hyderabad, India, Sept. 25.