The Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) released February industry unit retail sales for agricultural equipment in North America on March 11. For the month of February, in the larger tractor segments, North American 100HP+ tractor sales came in at 1,423 units, down 18% year-over-year (down 21% year-to-date), notes JP Morgan analyst Tami Zakaria, while 4WD tractor sales were down 2% year-over-year to 258 units (down 22% year-to-date).
U.S. retail sales of 100HP+ tractors were down 22% year-over-year in the month (vs. up 23% year-over-year in Canada), while 4WD tractors were down 41% year-over-year (vs. up 238% year-over-year in Canada).
Total North American 2WD tractor retail sales were down 15% year-over-year (down 14% year-to-date) with <40HP tractors down 16% year-over-year (down 13% year-to-date) and the 40-100HP category down 12% year-over-year (down 14% year-to-date).
North American combine retail sales decreased 44% year-over-year in February to 273 units (down 63% year-to-date). In the U.S., retail sales of combines were down 48% year-over-year in the month, while in Canada they were down down 32% year-over-year.
Zakaria notes that inventory-to-sales of 100HP+ tractors increased year-over-year to 5.9 months, and combines increased year-over-year to 2.3 months. North American 100HP+ tractor inventories were down 4% year-over-year to 12,571 units (vs. down 1% year-over-year in January). U.S. inventories were down 6% year-over-year and Canada inventories were up 4% year-over-year.
North American combine inventories were down 21% year-over-year to 1,285 units (vs. down 40% YoY in January), she noted. U.S. combine inventories dropped 29% year-over-year and Canada increased 8%.
