Ritchie Bros. sold a record-breaking 10,500-plus equipment items and trucks at its global auction Feb. 16 to 20 in Orlando, Fla.

The five-day unreserved public auction attracted 9,350-plus onsite and online bidders from 81 countries and generated more than $179 million in gross auction proceeds, including a record $66-plus million sold to online buyers. Multiple Orlando auction site records also were set, including total number of registered bidders (more than 9,350), number of online bidders (more than 5,000), total number of buyers (more than 2,650), number of online buyers (more than 1,300) and number of sellers (875).

“Our February Orlando auction is the largest auction we hold each year,” said Ravi Saligram, chief executive officer, Ritchie Bros. “The record 10,500-plus industrial assets sold at this year’s sale, and the record number of worldwide bidders the auction attracted, demonstrates the global reach and cross-sector appeal of this multi-day event. In fact, we sold more transportation sector assets at this sale than any of our previous Orlando auctions before, including a record 310 truck tractors on Friday. We’re also pleased with the strong performance of the transactions we underwrote at this auction.”

Ritchie Bros. sold equipment for 875 sellers, including 80-plus heavy construction items for Hermanos Yarull T. & Co., a civil engineering contractor based in the Dominican Republic.

“This was our first time selling with Ritchie Bros. and we were blown away by the magnitude of the auction and the efficiency of how it all came together,” said Cesar Alvarez of Hermanos Yarull T. & Co. “We’ve been in business for more than 40 years and have tried selling equipment piece-by-piece in a variety of ways before and it was a headache. With Ritchie Bros. we just give all the equipment to them and it’s done. We get better resale prices and great customer service."

The auction attracted equipment buyers from across North America and around the world, in person and online. Close to $144 million of equipment (or 80 percent) was sold to buyers located outside the state of Florida, including more than $48 million (or 27 percent) sold to buyers outside the country. Buyers participated from as far away as Australia, Ecuador, Thailand, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

“We had a tremendous crowd at last week’s Orlando auction, with a large presence both on site and online,” said Steve Kriebel, regional sales manager, Ritchie Bros. “This resulted in strong prices throughout the week, particularly on crawler tractors, excavators and transportation equipment.”

The record-setting selection of equipment in the Orlando auction included more than 500 compactors, more than 450 excavators and more.

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