Last week Ritchie Bros. conducted its largest Canadian auction of the year, selling more than $161 million (CA$207 million) of equipment over five days in Edmonton, Alberta.

The April 24–28 auction attracted more than 14,000 bidders from 59 countries, including roughly 9,750 online bidders. Approximately 89 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to Canadian buyers, with buyers from Alberta purchasing 55 percent, while international buyers from countries such as the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates purchased 11 percent of the equipment.

Approximately 58 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to online buyers.

"Our auction in Edmonton last week featured some of the cleanest, low-hour equipment available on the market today, attracting a huge number of global buyers," said Brian Glenn, Senior Vice President, Ritchie Bros. "We once again saw strong participation from Western Canadian registrants, bidding aggressively as they're looking to purchase equipment for the spring construction season, resulting in strong pricing across most equipment categories."

Glenn added, "Last week's auction featured equipment from close to 1,300 consignors—which is a new company record for a single auction. This included complete dispersal packages from great Western Canadian companies like NEC Construction and HiTrac Equipment and two big oilfield transportation packages of late-model rig moving equipment from H&E Oilfield Services and Cierra Trucking that attracted higher than average U.S. participation."