Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Swansea
Follow the metal. The steel and metal processing along the coast towards Neath and Port Talbot keeps a ring of fabrication, machining, plant hire and engineering firms in work across Swansea, and most of them are on the Enterprise Park at Llansamlet, at Fforestfach, or along Fabian Way. Their workshops hold the machines that cut, weld, turn and bore what the metals plants need, and a fair amount of lifting kit to move it.
When one of those firms closes, the plant suits the same ring of businesses. A fabricator in Neath or a machine shop in Llanelli may want the guillotine, press brake, bandsaw or large lathe that a neighbour has just stopped using. Beyond them the sale runs online to the trade across the UK.
We catalogue on site, sell online and manage the collection. Tell us what you have through the contact form.
Fabrication and machining plant from the metals trade
The machines that support a steel and metals area are heavy for their size. Large swing lathes for roll and shaft work, horizontal borers, plate rolls, press brakes with long beds, heavy guillotines, radial arm drills and bandsaws that take big section. The welding bays hold high amperage sets, positioners, manipulators and fume extraction, and there is usually an overhead crane in every bay.
We catalogue each machine by the figures a metals buyer works from. Swing and centres on a lathe, bed length and tonnage on a brake, plate width and thickness on a roll, cutting capacity on a saw, and the rated load and last examination date on every crane and hoist. Tooling stays with the machine it fits. Loose tooling, chucks, steadies and measuring kit are lotted in trays.
Buyers in this trade look hard at wear. We photograph beds and slideways honestly and note any faults we find, because a description that matches the machine is what a bid is built on.
One sale for a unit that mixes workshop and stores
A lot of the units on the Enterprise Park are half workshop and half something else. A trade counter at the front, a fabrication bay at the back, a mezzanine of stock and a yard with a forklift and a skip. When the business closes, all of it has to go.
We build the catalogue in sections. Machine tools and fabrication plant first, because those are the lots the trade travels for. Then the lifting kit, compressors, extraction and workshop furniture. Then the stock, the racking, the vehicles and the office. Each section is described for its own buyers, but there is one viewing day and one closing date, so the site is dealt with once.
Access is checked when we first visit. The estates were laid out for articulated traffic and junctions 44, 45 and 47 of the M4 are close, and we still measure the doors, the yard and the loading point. The trade in Neath, Port Talbot, Llanelli, Ammanford and Bridgend is within a comfortable drive of the viewing 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 Swansea
- The plant hire side of our business has a fitting shop. Does that sell with the engineering machines?
Yes. A plant hire fitting shop holds welding sets, hydraulic presses, hose crimpers, compressors, parts washers and diagnostic kit, and lots like that suit other hire companies, contractors, garages and mobile fitters across South Wales. We list it in the same sale as the machine tools so the site is viewed and cleared once. Any hire fleet still on the books is sold separately as plant rather than as workshop equipment, because that market is different.
- Our best lathe is worth more than everything else combined. Do we risk it in an auction?
You do not have to. For one machine that matters more than the rest we will give you an opinion on a private treaty sale to a dealer or end user, which can bring more and be quicker. If the auction is the better route, a reserve protects it, and the rest of the shop gives the catalogue its weight. What we would not suggest is holding it back and hoping. A machine standing in an empty unit is costing rent.
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.