More than 120 cranes sold at Ritchie auction

Auctioneer Ritchie Bros sold more than 120 cranes for US$ 14.5 million at its February sale in Orlando, Florida, USA.

"The success we had selling cranes in Orlando last month is a great start to another strong year of global crane sales for Ritchie Bros," said Steve Kriebel, Ritchie regional manager. "Not only did we manage to increase our gross auction proceeds from crane sales compared to last year, we also sold cranes to buyers in more countries."

The 71 crane buyers were from 20 countries. Ninety percent of the cranes were bought by buyers outside Florida, including 56% outside the USA. In 2010, 60% of the cranes sold in the February five-day Orlando auction were purchased by buyers from outside Florida. Also compared to the same event in 2010, gross auction proceeds from crane sales were nearly US$1.5 million higher in 2011. Around a third of the sales were made online.

Cranes sold included 43 rough terrains, 22 crane trucks, 15 crawlers, 15 hydraulic truck cranes and all terrain cranes. The highest value crane sold was a 160 tonne capacity 2008 Liebherr LTM 1160-51 all terrain crane to a buyer in Nevada for $1.2 million.