Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Aberdeen
An oil tool machine shop has a lathe with a hole through the spindle big enough to take a drill pipe, and that one detail tells you most of what makes Aberdeen engineering different. The service companies and subsea firms at Altens, Tullos and Dyce run hollow spindle lathes, large horizontal borers, thread cutting and inspection kit, pressure test bays and cranes rated for wellhead equipment. It is heavy, specialised, expensive and hard to replace, and it turns over when contracts and oil prices move.
Those moves come in cycles. When work is short, several similar shops can come to the market at once, so the sale is built to reach the trade across the UK, with export interest where the specification suits it. When work is plentiful the nearer demand is stronger. We plan the sale around the position you are in.
We catalogue on site, sell online and agree the collection window with you. Tell us what is in the shop through the contact form.
Large bore lathes and the oil tool market
The machine tools in an oil service shop are big by any standard and built for a particular job. Hollow spindle lathes with bore sizes in inches, long bed CNC lathes for tubulars, large machining centres for manifold and wellhead work, and thread inspection equipment for the premium connections the industry runs on.
The kit suits other oil tool shops, and the renewables and subsea firms taking on the same skills. Bids are placed online and the sale is open to buyers across the UK, and export interest is possible where the specification matches the other oil basins. We catalogue with the figures those buyers work from. Spindle bore, swing, distance between centres, chuck size and type, control system, steady rests and the thread gauging included. A lathe listed with its full set of jaws, steadies, faceplates and gauges is a different lot from the bare machine.
Pressure test bays, torque machines and lifting equipment suit the same trade and are listed with their rated capacities and certification status. Where certification has lapsed we say so.
When the nearer trade is quiet, the sale has to travel
When work is short around Altens, a sale that depends on the nearest bidders is a narrow one. The catalogue goes to machine tool dealers and oil tool firms across the UK, with the specifications, photographs, hours and documents that let a buyer bid without visiting.
Export interest is possible where the machine suits it. The harbour and the south harbour at Nigg Bay handle project cargo, and export packing and shipping are arranged and paid for by the buyer. The Western Peripheral Route gives a route from Altens or Dyce onto the A90 without crossing the city.
When work is plentiful the position changes, and the shops around Westhill, Portlethen, Inverurie and Kintore are the trade close enough to walk the lots on the viewing day. Either way the online format lets both sets of buyers compete on the same machine on the same day.
What these sales can include
- CNC turning centres
- CNC vertical and horizontal machining centres
- Manual and toolroom lathes
- Milling machines
- Surface and cylindrical grinders
- Press brakes and guillotines
- Laser, plasma and waterjet cutters
- Bandsaws and cold saws
- Radial arm and pillar drills
- Welding sets and positioners
- Coordinate measuring machines
- Tooling, chucks and workholding
- Compressors and dust extraction
- Cranes, hoists and forklifts
Viewing, bidding and the buyer's premium
Machinery sales run as online timed auctions. The catalogue is published with photographs and specifications. Buyers register, view the machines on the viewing day, and bid online until the lots close. The sale is advertised to the engineering trade, and bidding is online and open to buyers across the UK and beyond.
The buyer pays the hammer price plus the buyer's premium. VAT is charged where it applies and shown separately on the buyer's invoice. Ask and we will go through the specifics for your sale. Where a buyer is overseas, they arrange their own export.
Machines are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding, which is why the viewing day matters. Machines that can be run safely stay connected for the viewing day so your staff can demonstrate them where that is agreed, and everything else is isolated and left safe.
The machinery and engineering auctions page covers what the buyers want to know, what affects demand, reserves and estimates, removal and access, when a private sale beats an auction.
Questions about selling in Aberdeen
- Our shop is being consolidated into another site after a takeover. Can the surplus machines be sold while the rest keep running?
Yes. A consolidation sale can be run around a working shop. We catalogue the machines being released, hold the viewing on a day that suits production, and agree a collection order with you that keeps the movers away from the bays still in use. The order matters, so the machines going are not blocked in by the ones staying. Group owned tooling and anything on finance is settled with you before the catalogue is published.
- We expect most of the interest in our lathes to come from outside the UK. Does that slow the sale down?
Not the sale, only the collection. Buyers outside the UK bid online in the same window as everyone else and pay in the same way. What takes longer is removal, because export packing, crating, shipping and any customs work is arranged and paid for by the buyer. We allow for that when we agree the collection window with you, and the heavier lots usually need the most room in it. Lots are released against paid invoices, and you are paid once the sale is reconciled from cleared funds.
More questions about machinery auctions
Related services
Guides
- How a commercial asset auction works
A stage by stage account of an online timed auction for business assets. It covers the asset schedule, cataloguing, viewing days, how bidding closes, buyer's premium and VAT, collection and how you get paid.
- Preparing machinery and equipment for sale
What to do before viewing day. Keep the machines that can be run safely available to demonstrate, isolate the rest, clean but do not repaint, find the tooling and manuals, and sort out access for removal.
- How used machinery is valued
Buyers pay for what a machine will do for them, less what it costs to get it out and running. This guide explains how make, hours, tooling, demand and removal cost feed a guide price, and why that price is not book value.