3,354 new 50hp+ tractors were registered in the UK in from January to March this year. This is a 10% increase compared with the same three months a year ago.
This year started positively with registrations up nearly 30% in January to 644 units compared with January 2022, and the highest total for the opening month of the year since 2019.
February generally sees relatively small numbers of tractors registered, as buyers wait for the new registration plates from the beginning of March to coincide with the start of the fieldwork season and the end of the financial year. This certainly seems to have been the case this year, but the 487 units registered in February was 15% below the numbers in the same month last year.
March more than compensated for the lower February numbers, although this year’s peak was particularly high with 2,223 tractors registered. This is 13% more than in the same month last year, over 20% above the seasonal average and the highest monthly figure for registrations for any month since March 2009.
As well as the usual seasonal factors, the AEA reckons that the high number of machines recorded last month is an indication that supply chain disruptions continue to ease, allowing manufacturers to catch up with some of the backlog of orders which had built up over the previous two years. Source: AEA
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