Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers last week posted another record-breaking quarter, with quarterly gross auction proceeds exceeding $1 billion for the first time. Gross auction proceeds were $1.16 billion, compared with $945.3 million in last year’s second quarter, a 23 percent jump. Net earnings for the six months ended June 30 reached $62.3 million, or $0.59 per diluted share.

Gross auction proceeds for the first six months were $1.95 billion, an 18 percent year-over-year increase compared with $1.64 billion in the year-ago period. Auction revenues were $115.8 million for the period, compared to $94.1 million for the second quarter of 2007.

Ritchie Bros. conducted 92 unreserved industrial auctions in 12 countries during the first half of 2008, setting eight regional gross auction proceeds records during the period. Ritchie held the largest auction in its history,in February 2008 at its permanent auction site in Orlando, Fla., with gross auction proceeds of $190 million.

Almost $370 million worth of trucks, equipment and other assets were sold using Ritchie’s rbauctionBid-Live Internet bidding service during the first half of 2008, an increase of 21 percent compared with online gross auction proceeds during the first half of 2008.

“Many of the markets and regions we serve are experiencing challenging economic times, yet our auctions were, on average, larger than ever before,” said Ritchie Bros. CEO Peter Blake. “In the past six months, we continued to lay the foundation for sustainable long-term growth by hiring and training more qualified sales and support personnel; expanding and improving our global network of auction sites, and investing in the development of more efficient and scalable business processes.”

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers is based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.