The latest figures issued by the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) in relation to registrations of tractors and other types of self-propelled machinery cover the period to the end of June and show an improvement in new tractor registrations in comparison to recent months.
Registrations of new tractors during March and April were heavily impacted by the situation around the Coronavirus and the associated restrictions on activity with total registrations over the two months down approximately 40% on the same period last year.
June saw a significant improvement in year on year activity with 63 new tractors registered which was only 2 units less than in June 2019. June is typically a month with low levels of registrations with the split registration year kicking in at the start of July and normally driving a substantial number of registrations in that month. Anecdotally, there are reports of good levels of registrations taking place in the first weeks of July.
A total of 1,208 new tractors have been registered during the first half of this year which is a decrease of some 12% on the 1,378 units registered in the same period of 2019. It is expected that a stronger level of activity in July will see an improvement in the overall year on year comparison.
Cork, Tipperary and Wexford remain the counties with the highest levels of new tractor registrations so far this year with 175, 79 and 77 units respectively registered in those counties. Leitrim and Monaghan remain the only counties with registrations during the year not reaching double figures: no registrations in either county during June see them staying on 9 registrations each for the first six months.
Registrations of new tractors with over 100hp fell back slightly, to just under 90% in the first six months. Nearly 59% of all tractors registered in this period have in excess of 120hp and just over 31% of all registrations are of tractors with more than 150hp.
Registrations of used imported tractors recovered somewhat during June with the gradual reopening of the NCTS centre network through which such activity is carried out. June saw 72 used imports registered as against a total of 26 used imports registered during April and May.
There have been 888 used imports registered in the first six months of the year which is a considerable drop from the 1,689 registered in the same period of last year. The closures of the NCTS centres during much of the second quarter obviously impacted heavily on this activity.
Teleporter registrations continue to be heavily reduced as they have been in recent months. Only 4 such machines were registered in June bringing the total for the first six months of the year to 212 units as against 319 at the same time last year. There were 2 wheeled loaders registered in June bring the half year total to 69 units, down 3 on last year.
For the third consecutive month, there were no registrations of new backhoe loaders during June, leaving the total for the year to date at 19 units, down from 41 at the end of June 2019.
One more new self-propelled forage harvester was registered during June bringing the total for such machines so far in 2020 to 32 units: given the time of the year it seems unlikely that there will be many, or indeed any, further such registrations. There have also been 7 new combine harvesters registered to the end of June but the bulk of such activity would normally take place in July. There have also been 10 used imported combines registered so far this year.
New tractor registrations stabilize in June
