Monthly report from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers shows Canadian and US sales of all types of tractors down slightly in June compared to 2021 numbers, though not in every size category—but combine sales show nice push upwards.
By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Image via the Association of Equipment Manufacturers
According to the June 2022 report issued by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), tractor sales were down overall, but not for every tractor category, while combines sales made huge gains in both the US and Canada.
So, while it appears on the surface as a good-news-bad-news scenario, it’s not. It was mostly the big-ticket items—especially in Canada—that were being purchased.
Let’s see if we can provide a better understanding of what the AEM report for June 2022 means.
First, note that the AEM has smartly separated tractors into two specific categories: 2WD and 4WD, with three subsets for the 2WD vehicles. For 2WD tractors, as denoted by horsepower, we have: < 40 HP (less than); 40 < 100 HP; and 100+ HP. Combines… are designated as Self Prop Combines.
CANADA
If we look at total sales in June 2022 for farm tractors (regardless of type or size) Canadian sales were down by 5.0 percent when compared to the June of 2021. Combines, however, were up by 35.1 percent.
Let’s examine.
For the 2WD farm tractor sector, for tractors < 40 HP, sales dropped by 7.0 percent with 2,140 in June 2022, compared with 2,302 in 2021.
For those at 40 < 100 HP, sales were in the positive with 1.8 percent growth in June 2022 with 564 sales compared to 554 units sold in June of 2021.
For the 100+ HP sector, there was a drop of 11.1 percent in June 2022 sales, with 305 units sold, compared to 343 sold in Junee of 2021.
If we do the math (and AEM did that for us), overall in the 2WD farm tractor segment, it’s a drop of 5.9 percent, with 3,009 units sold in the month of June 2022, compared to 3,199 sold in June of 2021.
But we did say that the bigger ticket items did well. For the 4WD sector of farm tractors, there was a 46.4 percent increase, with 82 units sold in June of 2022, compared to just 56 sold in June of 2021.
Combines… yeah… June of 2022 saw 154 units sold, compared to 114 sold in June of 2021, an increase of 35.1 percent.
Year-to-Date numbers across the board, however, show a decrease in 2022 compared to 2021, with a single exception.
For 2WD < 40HP farm tractors, year-to-date numbers in 2022 show a total of 9,976 sales compare to 11,087 sold in 2021—a decrease of 10 percent.
For 40 < 100 HP farm tractors, there have been 2,871 units sold so far in 2022, compared with 2,931 in 2021—a drop of 1.8 percent.
The lone bright spot overall, is in the 100+ HP segment, with 1,741 units sold in 2021 so far, compared to 1,710 sold in 2021—a positive showing, albeit a small one, of 1.8 percent.
Overall, 2WD tractors have shown a decrease of 7.2 percent in 2022 compared to January-February of 2021.
For 4WD farm tractors, 2022 numbers are down quite a bit—28.0 percent, with only 349 sales so far in 2022 compared to 485 units sold in 2021.
The combine farm tractor sales (2WD + 4WD) are down by 7.9 percent in 2022, with 14,937 units sold so far this year, compared with 16,213 units sold as of June 2021.
Combines sales are also down overall for 2022, with 481 units sold, compared to 569 sold in 2022—a drop of 15.5 percent. But hey, at least sales for June 2022 were showing an upward swing, right?
UNITED STATES
Looking at total farm tractors (2WD + 4WD) in the US for the month of June 2022, there were 27,426 units sold (down from May 2022 when 27,880 units were sold, and down from April 2022 when 31,587 units were sold).
In June of 2021, there were 29,892 total farm tractors sold, which means that our 2022 numbers show a decrease of 8.2 percent.
For the < 40 HP farm tractor segment, there were 18,466 units sold in June of 2022, compared to 20,572 sold in 2021—a decrease of 10.2 percent.
For the 40 < 100 HP segment, 6,721 tractors were sold, compared against 7,246 sold in June of 2021—again a drop in sales, this one by 7.2 percent.
We did mention higher ticket sales as doing well, with the 100+ HP farm tractors having 1,981 sales in June of 2022, compared against just 1,808 sales in June of 2021—an increase of 9.6 percent. Yay!
Overall, the 2WD farm tractor market sagged by 8.3 percent, with combined 2WD sales in June of 2022 at 27,168, compared to the 29,626 units sold in June of 2021.
For 4WD farm tractors, sales dipped slightly in June of 2022, with 258 units sold in June 2022, compared against 266 units sold in June of 2021, a drop of 3.0 percent.
Good news for combines—though percentage-wise not as robust as that shown for Canada—there were 629 units sold in June of 2022, compared with 502 sales in June of 2021—that’s an impressive increase of 25.3 percent.
When we look at the year-to-date information for 2022 against 2021 numbers, sales are down across the board.
Total farm tractors (2WD + 4WD) are down 13.4 percent with 144,303 units sold so far in 2022, compared with 166,551 units sold January through June of 2021—a decrease of 13. 4 percent.
For 2WD farm tractors in the <40 HP segment, year-to-date data shows a drop of 15.8 percent, with 99,597 units sold as of June 2022, compared against 118,289 sold by June of 2021.
For the 40 < 100 HP 2WD farm tractor segment, there were 32,138 units sold as of June 2022, compared to 36,585 sold as of June 2021—a decrease of 12.2 percent.
The bright spot, again, is in the 100+ HP segment, with 2022’s year-to-date sales showing a 10.3 percent increase based on 11,282 units sold, overshadowing the 10,231 units sold as of June 2021.
The 2WD farm tractor sales market is down overall by 13.4 percent: Year-to-date 2022 at 143,017 units, compared to 2021 numbers of 165,105 units sold.
In the 4WD farm tractor segment, it’s an 11.1 percent drop with 1,286 units sold as of June 2021, compared to 1,446 sold in 2021.
Overall, the year-to-date numbers for both 2WD and 4WD farm tractor sales are down by 13.4 percent, with 144,303 units sold as of June 2022, and 166,551 sold as of June 2021.
The June 2022 sales bump in combines still shows a year-to-date drop of 5.5 percent when compared against 2021.
As of June of 2022, there have been 2,150 sales of combines, compared to 2,275 such sales as of June 2021.
The AEM is the leading organization in North America advancing construction and agriculture equipment manufacturers and their value chain partners in the global marketplace. More information available at www.aem.org.