The Strange Behaviour of the Used Equipment Market in 2020

Used equipment values are a key driver of multiple business areas including equipment finance, business valuations, procurement and TCO estimates and rental fleet management. We spoke with multiple companies involved in the sale of used equipment about key statistics such as site traffic, sale volumes, conversions and equipment values, and how these had changed in 2020. We also reviewed publicly available information in the market.

The results are surprising; MarkNet Alliance, Machinery Pete, TradeMachines and Bidpath are all reporting increases in activity, and some are dramatic. This is especially surprising when some equipment dealers are telling us they not currently buying for stock. Finding new buyers is key to success in this market:

These sources are not alone, many other companies are reporting similar statistics. We've used the headline grabbing '83% increase' from Machinery Pete's own reports above specifically in relation to small HP tractors to demonstrate the scale of increase, but the pattern remains with other asset classes: https://www.agweb.com/article/machinery-pete-hot-buys-pandemic-world

It is worth noting that while many asset classes are performing well, some are negative. There have been declines in value for equipment from industries suffering the strongest effects of the downturn (such as airport related equipment, and coaches).

Thanks to MarkNet Alliance and TradeMachines for supplying us with the statistics above.

We'd appreciate everyones thoughts on this topic, please feel free to comment below, or contact us to discuss how best to maximise sales revenue in this market, and why now is the best time to be selling surplus assets:

1. Have you seen similar performance in sales for your own company?

2. Have you seen the opposite, either throughout the year or more recently? Are there signs of a decline in pricing and buyer interest?

3. Are you seeing new buyers active at auctions? Can you rely on previously active buyers to purchase in similar volumes?

4. Are there any asset classes you have seen very high or very low performing assets?

5. What do you think are the reasons for the markets performing in this way? Is part of it more people working from home and therefore able to participate in buying these assets, or is there a more complex reason?