Economic downturn - an opportunity for used equipment

A quick trawl through some equipment dealer and major auction sites this morning reveals something that won’t be a surprise to many with current economic conditions: there is a lot of good quality, used equipment on the market, at very attractive prices. 

There is also some unused equipment out there that never made it to installation, or is being sold off as surplus to requirements.

So for those companies that have a bit of confidence in their operations and a modest amount of cash, this presents a number of opportunities.  Opportunities to expand production, upgrade to more reliable or more economic to run equipment, or install some redundancy and back-up systems to improve overall reliability...at knock-down prices.

This is an opportune time for engineering and production managers to take a look at their operations, see where the bottlenecks or excess downtime are occurring that seemed too expensive to address in the past, and take a good look at what is available on the used market to fix these issues.

Of course, buying used doesn’t come without its risks, but understanding what you are buying and investing in some thorough checks and expert advice will keep these risks to a minimum.  Like any investment, a thorough economic analysis should be done before committing, incorporating allowance for inspections and repairs that may be needed before putting the equipment into service along with all the usual depreciation and maintenance cost projections.

As with any purchase, it doesn’t hurt to get some independent advice.  For those considering buying used heat transfer equipment, there is a helpful guide within the Resources page of our website  to help you sort the wheat from the chaff.