Combine harvester sales up 78 per cent on June last year

Combine harvesters continue to make headway into the sales market with a whopping 78 per cent increase in national sales in June, compared with the same month last year.

The Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia June report highlighted that while new tractor sales were down across the country, combine harvesters were “gathering pace with in excess of 200 units delivered in the month”.

“This puts us well ahead of the same time last year, up 78 per cent in fact, and expectations are for an outstanding year ahead,” TMA executive director Gary Northover said.

Out-front mowers also enjoyed a solid run with a 24 per cent rise in sales for the month, compared with last year.

Mr Northover said June brought to an end the highly successful Temporary Full Expensing Program introduced by the Federal Government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This program has assisted in the industry not only continuing to operate during this difficult period but prosper,” he said.

“The TMA has been concerned that the termination of this program would cause problems for the industry and lobbied the Government for relief for those customers that ordered equipment, but due to the prevalent supply chain issues were unable to take delivery before June 30, however, we were unsuccessful.

“It remains to be seen now what the full impact of the end of this program has for the industry particularly given the ever-increasing predictions of an El Nino weather pattern likely to dominate Australia for the next nine to 12 months.”

Mr Northover said there were about 2500 tractors delivered in June, about 60 fewer deliveries and a 16 per cent decline on the same period last year.

Tractor sales in WA dropped 17 per cent for the month compared with last year, the third largest decline in the country.

“Sales around the nation were generally down across the board,” Mr Northover said, although sales in NSW were steady, South Australia recorded a 9 per cent rise and Queensland was up slightly by 1.9 per cent compared with the same month last year.

“Looking at the machine categories, the 40 to 100hp (30-75kw) range enjoyed a small rise, up 2 per cent and is now 17 per cent behind year to date.

“The 100 to 200hp (75-150kw) category was down, this time by 3 per cent and remains 20 per cent behind YTD, and finally the 200hp (150kw) PLUS range slipped slightly, down two per cent remaining 5 per cent behind last year.”

Baler sales dipped also, down 11 per cent but remain 10 per cent ahead on a year-to-date basis.