KHL Group - Access International

Hammer down on access: Maria Hadlow visits the UK's Euro Auction

Written by Maria Hadlow - 10 Nov 2009

It's a typical: British summer day when I visit Euro Auction's Leeds auction site: cold damp and windy. Plant of all types is packed tightly over the 28 acre site which is surrounded by fields and watched over by cooling towers and pylons.

On a non-auction day you can't help but think this would be a bleak place, but today it is throbbing with activity. Equipment is arriving and leaving; there are long queues of large Volvo trucks on one ramp and one of the mini-diggers on the other ramp is spewing out smoke, which mixes with smell of frying onions from the burger van.. Above the general hubbub, you can hear the distinctive chants of the auctioneers providing a musical accompaniment to the activity.

Euro Auction's run an "American auction" style event, which means the bidders are seated in an open sided marquee while the plant is driven past: today the company is running two ramps simultaneously.

The auctioneers have microphones and are seated in a box to the side of the marquee with a couple of operators also taking bids on-line. Down on the floor of the marquee, the bid-catchers tease bids out of the buyers with a series of hand signals, clicking and clapping, and convey them to the auctioneer. The auctioneer is rhythmically calling the next price he is looking for.

The bid catchers are also Euro Auction sales men (see box) they have got equipment from consigners but also know the potential bidders.

All equipment at a Euro Auction sale is sold: they do not operate a "reserve price" policy, "Everything sells very much at market value," says Jonnie Keys of EuroAuctions.

"Prices for access equipment has risen 10 to 15% since the beginning of the year," says Mr Keys, "but the bubble in the UK may have burst. There is less equipment coming into the market again - levels have fallen to what they were two years ago." He thinks that most rental companies in the UK have now right-sized their fleets and may start buying again .

The same may not be true of the European market - Euro Auctions runs regular auctions in the UK, Ireland and Germany. "Europe is six to nine months behind the UK in the recession," says Mr Keys, "and despite media reports which imply growth in Europe (the German elections are coming up): reports from the ground tell me that Germany is starting to struggle."

Mr Keys points out that rental companies had got used to access equipment having a high retained value. "Many have realised that that price will now be lower," he said.

 "Prices for used access equipment were lowest in November 2008, the rise began at the start of 2009." Mr Keys continued, "We have had more unit sales, but the sales value was 15% lower. When there are less lots, the prices rise."

Mr Keys has also noticed that the amount of equipment that was coming in through repossession from banks and finance houses is starting to settle

 

Bidders at the Euro Auction sales  are expected to put down a deposit before the auction begins based on a percentage of what they intend to spend. Mr Keys says that in a UK auction 50% of the sales are bought by UK companies but around 60% is destined for outside the UK. “Around 9 to 10% is going to North Africa: Egypt, Lybia and other countries on similar latitude……Plant is still cheaper in the UK than the rest of Europe.