Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Cardiff
Cardiff's engineering is mostly service engineering. The steelworks at Tremorfa, the port, the builders merchants and the vehicle fleets across the east of the city all need workshops to keep them running, and those workshops hold lathes, mills, saws, welding sets, presses and compressors bought for maintenance rather than production. The general engineering and fabrication firms at Wentloog and Lamby Way add to that.
Maintenance kit is often lightly used, and that matters at auction. A lathe that has done repair jobs for years may carry less wear than a production machine of the same age, and condition is one of the things bidders price.
We catalogue on site or collect to our own premises, whichever fits the job, and sell online to the trade in South Wales and across the UK. Tell us what is in the workshop through the contact form.
Maintenance workshops from the steelworks and the port
A maintenance workshop is a different sale from a production shop. There are fewer machines, they are more varied, and the value is often in the small lots. Welding sets, magnetic drills, pipe threaders, hydraulic presses, bench grinders, torque tools and racks of stock and consumables. Lots like that suit other maintenance departments, plant hire yards, small fabricators and mobile fitters. The auction is online and open to bidders well beyond the area, and that trade in Newport, Barry, Caerphilly, Bridgend and the valleys is a short trip from the viewing day.
We lot it to suit them. Machines sell singly with their tooling. Hand tools, consumables, spares and stock go in trays and pallets by type, so a fitter can bid on a pallet of welding rods or a box of taps and dies without wanting the whole store.
The bigger firms at Tremorfa and around the port also run heavy plant. Large lathes, plate rolls, guillotines and overhead cranes are catalogued by capacity and advertised to the fabrication trade.
From Wentloog out to the older sites near the docks
Access is checked on our first visit rather than judged from the address. Wentloog and Capital Business Park were laid out for articulated traffic and sit close to the A48(M) and the A4232, and we still measure the doors, the turning space and the point a lorry can load from.
Tremorfa, Ocean Park and the units along Hadfield Road and Penarth Road are older and more mixed. Some have a yard shared with a neighbour, and floor levels and loadings vary, which changes what handling equipment a mover needs. What we find goes in the catalogue, so buyers know before they bid.
Collection days are agreed once the sale closes. Buyers arrange and cover the cost of the removal of their lots, and we agree the window and the order with you so that one mover is not blocking another. We attend and release lots once their invoices are paid.
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 Cardiff
- The steelworks contract has ended and the workshop lease runs out at the quarter day. Can a sale fit in?
Usually, yes, though it depends on the number of lots and on access. A maintenance workshop catalogues quickly when the machines are few and the small lots can be trayed up. The sale then runs for a week or two, and collection follows in a window we agree with you and the landlord. If the date is tighter, we can collect everything to our own premises and sell from there, which frees the unit straight away and moves the collection problem to us.
- We are a fleet operator with a workshop, not an engineering firm. Is it worth a sale on its own?
Often, yes. A fleet workshop holds vehicle lifts, tyre and brake equipment, diagnostic tools, welding sets, compressors, presses and pillar drills, and that mix suits the motor trade as well as engineering buyers. If the workshop is small, we may add it to a wider machinery sale so it benefits from the bigger audience, and we tell you which route we recommend after we have seen it. Either way each item is catalogued and sold on its own merits.
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.