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Multiple world records were achieved at the unique one‑day Hewden crane disposal sale organised by Euro Auctions, Europe's largest auctioneers of industrial plant, construction machinery and agricultural equipment, on behalf of Joint Administrators from Ernst & Young LLP, at the Newark showground on Friday 03 March.
Already recognised as the world's largest single one‑day mobile crane sale, this was a truly impressive spectacle, with the 127 cranes lined up either side of a 300m+ long stretch of the disused runway at the Newark showground, all with their boom arms raised. The auctioneers proceeded down the runway during the course of the day, moving to each lot in turn; with the final hammer price exceeding €32m (£27.4m).
Despite the wet and blustery conditions on the day an over 500 interested bidders turned out to participate and witness the auction with close to 1500 additional bidders registering and taking part via the internet with 15% of all winning bids going to online bidders. While 36 cranes were snapped up by UK based companies, many of which are likely to continue to be used on UK based contracts and projects, bidders from over 30 countries were represented and brought the rest and these are expected to now be shipped around the globe. One bidder from Holland, for example, but representing a Kuwait customer purchased a package of eight cranes. Other notable bidders came from the Netherlands, Finland, Oman, Australia, Chile and Japan.
"Bidders had a wide selection of cranes to choose from at this auction so they could select something that exactly met their requirements. Both 220 Ton all terrain Tadano cranes went for £725, 000 each while one of the versatile 2002 Terex Demag 30 Ton City cranes went for just £39,000," continued Jonnie Keys. "All of the Hewden equipment we have auctioned to date has proved to be of exceptional quality, well maintained and providing real value for money for its new owners.
"Euro Auctions has extensive experience in conducting off‑site disposal sales and through our global network of buyers and consignors we’ve been able to market the Hewden disposal events to both potential specialist buyers interested in cranes and lifting equipment, along with targeting the general construction machinery to a wide audience.
"In fact the success of this sale has been such that it has already prompted interest for cranes at our upcoming Leeds sale at the start of April, where we expect to see a number of cranes for sale."
Topping the list of items auctioned were two 220 Ton all terrain Tadano cranes only registered in 2016 which feature a 68m main boom, an 11.1m boom extension, and a 76m maximum lift height and these went for €877,500/£725,000 each. Then there were 23 other 100+ Ton Tadano and Terex cranes most of which are only a few years old, with low hours and offering various radius and maximum lift heights. Then there were 57 cranes in the 50-100 Ton bracket and 45+ units in the versatile and highly sort after 30-50 Ton general purpose category.
"On the Thursday, Euro Auctions also held a general construction equipment disposal sale at the Newark showground site where over 500 equipment lots sold with a total hammer price of just over €5.6m / £4.8m. Bidders were able to acquire many exceptionally well maintained, low hours pieces of equipment, some less than 12‑months old. These included a good choice of Thwaites 9-ton, 6-ton swivel skip, 3-ton and 1-ton hi-tip dumpers; wheeled forks and telehandlers including a selection of CAT TH414C, JCB531-70 and JCB 535-95 models; plus a choice of JCB 3CX wheeled diggers along with various other tracked excavators from a choice of JCB JS130's through to JCB 8025, 8014 and 8008 tracked mini diggers. Again prices remained strong for these and a number of the pieces will be being shipped to customers across Europe and further afield.
"It was a unique day for Euro Auctions with the company achieving several firsts.
"At €32m (£27.4m) this was the biggest single one-day sale delivered by Euro Auctions in revenue terms – ever!
"With all 127 cranes being sold in just four hours this equates to revenue generation of around €133k / £114k per minute – again the fastest ever achieved.
"The two 220 tonnes cranes each went for €877.500 / £725, 000, the single largest ticket item price ever achieved at a Euro Auctions sale for used pieces of equipment.
"This unique record breaking sale, the likes of which will never be seen again, attracted massive global interest and generated some really impressive records," enthused Jonnie Keys, Operations Manager for Euro Auctions. "Bidders registering to receive information and to participate in this sale was at one of the fastest rates we've ever seen for an auction and the turn out on the day was phenomenal – creating a real buzz. The media also recognised the importance of this auction with reports going out on both BBC radio and live reports aired on BBC-TV news from the site on the day.”
Euro Auctions was appointed in late 2016 by S.J. Woodward and C.P. Dempster of Ernst & Young LLP, the Joint Administrators, to dispose of the cranes and general construction equipment assets of HS Realisations Ltd (previously known as Hewden Stuart Ltd) the hire company that entered administration on 22nd November 2016.
Sam Woodward, Joint Administrator concluded: "We are delighted with the effort put in by Euro Auctions and the results achieved in respect to the disposal of the mobile crane and construction machinery assets of Hewden. This has maximised the return for creditors and resulted in this equipment returning to the market to meet ongoing customer requirements."
Since the start of the year, Euro Auctions has been working closely with the Joint Administrators and has now delivered a number of unreserved auctions across the UK to dispose of thousands of pieces of used general construction plant and equipment held at individual depots. When added to the revenues just achieved at the 127 mobile crane auction total revenue of approximately £46m, has already been realised.
Further disposal auctions are still to take place and the disposal process is not expected to be completed until the end of April by which time we the eventual total could exceed £60m.
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