Used Telehandler Inventory Changes Influenced By Rental Market

The latest Sandhills Global market reports covering lifts in Sandhills’ U.S. marketplaces show inventory levels remaining elevated while values continue downward trends. Inventory was up 5.3% month over month and 11.29% year over year in June for the market as a whole, which includes used telehandlers.

Watch the new telehandler market report video to hear Machinery Trader Manager Matt Sterup explain the factors behind inventory trends by brand and how inventory is affecting auction values and retail prices.

Used Telehandler Market Report Video

“We're seeing a lot of 5- to 10-year-old inventory coming to the marketplace, which is pretty common,” says Sterup. “If you think about the telehandler market, it's very heavily rental-driven while those new units are going right into rental fleets and that are typically going to be turned on that 5- to 10-year window, which is exactly what we're seeing here.”

“The big red flag to me is Caterpillar inventory,” Sterup continues. “Why are the other four major manufacturers in this category seeing pretty substantial increases year over year but Caterpillar isn't seeing that? And furthermore, those other manufacturers are either above or pretty close to where they were pre-COVID, but not Caterpillar. So where is all this inventory? Talking with Cat dealers and people in the industry, we’ve found Caterpillar focused on the rental fleets these past three years so there's a lot of aerial gear sitting in rental fleets on Caterpillar dealerships that maybe hasn't come up for sale yet, and that's why we're seeing such a big gap between where we were at in 2020 vs. where we're at today on these inventory levels.”

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Check out Sandhills’ News page to read more about the June market reports covering the farm machinery, construction equipment, transportation, and aviation markets.