Sales of Agricultural tractors were down again in March by 19% on the same month last year and are now 13% behind for the 2022 year to date. This is still a strong level of sales for the industry which continues to be severely hampered by supply issues.
Whilst supply chain issues are a worldwide problem, they appear to be exacerbated at our ports.
Members are citing issues such as overly lengthy delays in quarantine due to a lack of suitably trained staff to process agricultural equipment and overly expensive container costs sometimes 3 to 4 times greater than normal. This along with a shortage of containers is leading some suppliers to resort to roll on roll off for products that would ordinarily be containerised. Compounding this are reports emerging that due to the severe backlog in unloading ships, shipping companies are simply not allocating as many ships to Australia because it is proving too costly and unproductive for them to do so. The TMA welcomes the recent announcement of a Productivity Commission review into the efficiency of the Maritime Logistics System and has made a submission. However, one would expect that any findings and resultant improvements will probably be years off and it would have been great to see some attempts to improve the situation in the recent federal budget pending this review. Sadly this was not to be
Looking at sales across the nation, all states were down in March. Beginning in NSW sales were down 21% for the month and are now 10% behind last year. Queensland was down 11% to be now 5% behind and Victoria was 12% behind last March and is now 10.4% down YTD.
Sales in Western Australia recorded another drop this time, 35% for the month to be 34% off YTD , South Australia also dropped 32%. Tasmania was again down, this time by 17% whilst sales into the Northern Territory were steady.
Taking a look at the performance reporting categories, the small under 40hp (30kw) category was down 18%. to be 9% off YTD. The 40 to 100hp (30-75kw) range was down for the first time in a while 6% in the month to remain 1% ahead YTD and the 100 to 200hp (75-150 kw) category was down 21%.
The large 200 hp (150kw) PLUS range was again down, this time by 39% compared to the same month last year and is now 39% off YTD.
Baler sales enjoyed a lift in March up 36% compared with the same month last year and sales of Out – Front Mowers finished down 6%.
Demand for Agricultural Machines is presently very strong worldwide and with the increase in costs being felt across the board, some prices rises are beginning to occur, as they appear to be in many other industries and with the Temporary Full Expensing Program set to run until June 2023, we expect demand to remain high.
Planning is well underway for the 2022 TMA Conference which has been scheduled for Wednesday July 20th to be held at the Hyatt Essendon Fields in Melbourne. Tickets are now on sale and can be found on the TMA Website www.tma.asn.au