According to Finlay Massey from auctioneers Ritchie Bros in Brisbane, the steady increase in demand for used equipment and infrastructure is keeping him and Ritchie Bros extremely busy as they ready for an upcoming auction of 670 items.

Massey told Australia’s Mining Monthly that prices kept going up but original equipment manufacturers could not keep up with demand especially with the global shortage of everything.

He said Ritchie Bros recently sold a 40-piece package to a client on a WA mine, and while the market in used equipment sales had been depressing for the past three years, sales and enquiries from Western Australia were a good sign.

Massey told AMM the market was coming back.

Ritchie Bros latest offerings to be auctioned off in Brisbane on March 1 come as a big package from Darwin, with a big earthmoving business going insolvent.

The inventory for the March auction includes Caterpillar 980k wheel loaders, Volvo ECR305CL hydraulic excavators, Cat D6T crawler tractors, Kenworth T909 prime movers, motor graders, radial stacking conveyors and articulated dump trucks.