The new tractor registration figures issued by the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) show a continuation of a strong start to the year for registrations of both new and used import tractors. The figures show that there were 319 new tractors registered during February which was an increase of some 39% on the same month in 2020. A total of 797 new tractors have been registered in the first two months of this year, up 21% on the comparable figure of 658 units a year previously.
The three counties with the highest levels of registrations over the first two months were Cork, Tipperary and Wexford with 107, 70 and 50 units registered respectively. Leitrim was the county with the lowest level of registrations, with 7 units up to the end of February.
The 101 to 140hp range is the horsepower band with the highest level of registrations with 426 units, or over 53%, of all registrations in the first two months. During the period in question, only 8% of all tractors registered were of 100hp or less and 25% were of over 160hp.
Registrations of used imported tractors continued at high levels during February with 460 such units registered during the month bringing the total for the first two months of 2021 to 968 units, a year-on-year increase to the end of February of 74%.
Telescopic loader registrations also improved in February. There were 48 new telescopic loaders registered in February, a 9% drop on the same month of last year. The year-to-date new telescopic loader registrations came in at 115 units, down 29% on the corresponding figure of 161 units in 2020.
Wheeled loader registrations started the year with a significant year-on-year decrease in January but were still quite strong in a longer-term context. While there were 19 new units registered in February, up 7 machines from February of 2020, the year-on-year picture is down about 5% with a total of 35 units registered compared to the 37 units in the same period last year.
Irish backhoe loader registrations saw a return to more healthy sales numbers. For the first two months of 2021 a total of 18 units were registered compared with 10 units of a year ago.
The XUV market is still growing while units registered dropped marginally for the first two months of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020. The FTMTA figures show that 50 new XUV units were registered for the first two months of 2021, compared with 61 for the same period in 2020.
