1,446 new agricultural tractors (over 50hp) were registered in the UK last month (July). That brings the year-to-date figure (January-July inclusive) to 7,643 new units.
That’s according to the latest data from the UK-based AEA (Agricultural Engineers Association).
Stephen Howarth, an agricultural economist with the association, explained: “The month-on-month volatility of UK agricultural tractor registrations continued in July.
“The number of units [over 50hp] registered during the month was up 7% on July 2018, at 1,446 units. This rise followed two months of significant declines.
The total for the year to date remains 3% down on the first seven months of last year, with 7,643 new tractors registered.
He added: “Some volatility was to be expected this year, given the ongoing influence of Brexit on the market.”
It’s worth noting that, according to the AEA, 12,102 new agricultural tractors (over 50hp) were registered in the UK during the entirety of 2018.
Global tractor sales
Meanwhile, data released by FederUnacoma (Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation) has revealed how many new tractors were sold around the entire world last year.
It estimates that 2.16 million new units were sold in 2018. That’s up slightly (0.4%) on the estimated figure for 2017.
Just over 1.9 million new units were apparently sold in 2016. The figure for 2015 was almost 1.94 million.
Looking at individual markets, India notched up sales of about 796,000 units last year, though one suspects that many of these were relatively small or low-powered machines.
Next up was China; the data indicates that 358,000 new tractors (of over 18kW or 24hp) were sold there last year.
In the US, approximately 236,000 new tractors were sold last year. Meanwhile, here in Europe, about 177,000 units were registered.
This table (below) shows the data – collated by FederUnacoma – in considerably greater detail.
Number of new tractors sold around the world (2015-2018):