Tractor Market Continues Steady Improvement
The latest new tractor registration figures issued by the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) cover the period to the end of March and highlight a continuing uplift in the fortunes of the Irish tractor market. March saw 240 units registered which was a 14% increase on the same month last year and brings the total for the first quarter to 896 units, a year on year increase of 25 units or nearly 3%.
The three counties with the highest levels of registrations so far this year continue to be Cork, Tipperary and Wexford with 132, 88 and 71 units registered respectively to the end of March. The healthy spread of new registrations across the county seen in the first two months continued in March with evidence of good activity in what might seen as primarily dairy farming counties ; Leitrim is the only county with year to date registrations remaining in single digits but saw 2 units registered bringing the total for the quarter there to 5 tractors.
The jump in the share of the market represented by higher horse power tractors during the first two months of the year was maintained in March with the percentage of all new tractors registered during the first quarter having in excess of 100hp holding steady at 94%. The percentages of tractors registered of over 120hp and 150hp have climbed to 58% and 30% respectively – up from 56% and 29% at the end of February. A total of 7 tractors have been registered so far this year with 70hp or less.
FTMTA Chief Executive, Gary Ryan commented that the FTMTA figures will often differ from slightly to more significantly in comparison with other figures as the FTMTA figures are thoroughly checked to remove items such as UTVs and other self propelled equipment that can often be included as tractors in figures from other sources. Ryan added “these figures are of great importance to our trade and member firms so we take considerable care to ensure their accuracy. FTMTA are confident that our monthly figures are the most accurate and consistent measure of the tractor and self propelled machinery markets available”.
Registrations of telehandlers continued the strong performance of recent years during March with 55 units registered, up from 45 a year ago. A total of 216 new telehandler have been registered during the first three months of the year which is a 62% year on year increase. The impressive increase is heavily driven by the fact that 118 units were registered in January which was a near 3 fold year on year increase. Notably, exactly 50% of the total registrations thus far have been in three counties with Meath, Cork and Wexford accounting for 49, 30 and 29 units respectively.
Wheeled loader registrations have also continued their strong start to 2019 with March seeing a year on year increase from 7 to 10 units and bringing the first quarter total to 30 units up from 21 at the end of March 2018. The fact that the main registration activity around such machines is traditionally in the coming months to coincide with the start of the pit silage harvesting season indicates a good year in prospect for this market.
Be a part of a stronger, professional, farm machinery industry – join the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association – contact FTMTA at 045 409309 or membership@ftmta.ie for details.
