Booming Heavy Equipment Demand Produces Record Month for Ritchie Bros.

Vancouver-based Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA) auctioneer of heavy equipment and trucks sold approximately $561 million of equipment at 31 unreserved auctions around the world in September 2012 the highest September gross auction proceeds in company history and one of its largest ever months. The company also achieved its highest ever third quarter gross auction proceeds with approximately $848 million of equipment sold during the quarter ended September 30 2012.

The Ritchie Bros. Web site (www.rbauction.com) attracted roughly 4.1 million unique visitors in the first nine months of 2012 a 39 percent increase compared to the same period in 2011. All dollar amounts in this news release are presented in U.S. dollars.

"Our record September and third quarter gross auction proceeds reflect steady improvement in equipment supply and demand dynamics which we discussed on our August earnings call" said Peter Blake CEO of Ritchie Bros. "New equipment supply and demand continued to become more balanced during the quarter which is beginning to increase the availability of used equipment in the market. This is a positive development for our business and growth prospects though increasing equipment supply resulted in more variability in used equipment prices at our auctions in the month of September" he said.