Registrations of new (agricultural) tractors (over 50hp) in the UK in December 2017 amounted to 1,360 units, according to figures from the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA).
Just 515 units were registered in the same month of 2016 (a year earlier).
According to the AEA, the reason for the big jump – whereby December 2017 contrasts sharply with December 2016 – is mainly due to a large number of machines that were pre-registered last month – in advance of the introduction of new (tractor) regulations on January 1, 2018.
As a consequence, it is likely that this activity is now resulting in some suppression of the number of registrations in the early months of 2018.
The big rise in December brought the total number of new tractors registered in 2017 to 12,033 units. That’s 13% more than in 2016.
There is a significant delay in the publication of brand-by-brand data for the UK tractor market – due to EU regulations that preclude the release of such information before a certain period has elapsed.
We are currently awaiting UK brand-by-brand data for 2016, which should become available shortly. In the meanwhile, data from 2015 shows that John Deere was the market leader at that point; it held a 30.2% share of the new (agricultural) tractor market.
Image source: Shane Casey
Next up was New Holland (18.7%); followed by Massey Ferguson (12.1%). In fourth place was Case IH (8.4%).
Interestingly, CNH (New Holland and Case IH combined) had an aggregate share of 27.1% – close to John Deere’s tally. AGCO (Massey Ferguson, Fendt and Valtra added together) had a combined share of 21.3%.
Annual presidency
In other AEA news, Mark Ormond, managing director of Same Deutz-Fahr (SDF) UK, took over the annual presidency of the association during 2017.
Image source: Shane Casey
Mark was born into a farming family and has 20 years’ experience in the agricultural machinery industry – at both dealer and manufacturer level. His early career was spent in the implement sector, but he moved to SDF (as managing director) in 2015. That role sees him holding responsibility for all sales and after-sales for the company in the UK and here in the Republic of Ireland.
Who or what is the AEA?
The AEA was established as far back as 1875. Its objective is to promote the technical, trade and commercial interests of British manufacturers and suppliers of agricultural machinery.
It says that, since then, it has championed the cause of manufacturers of agricultural machinery and, more recently, outdoor power equipment.
Image source: Shane Casey
Today its members come from a relatively broad spectrum of manufacturers of land-based equipment – from combine harvesters to secateurs and everything in between.
