[Dec. 2021] With regard to sales offers, the answer about the “when” is as short as it is simple: About one year before decommissioning – and for main single equipment about half a year before going out of service – with a duration of ca. six months after the termination of your preservation measures.

Why not earlier? To answer this, you have to look at the buyer’s market: The urge to buy used equipment is usually short-lived. Either there is an emergent case of damaged equipment for which an operator needs a replacement, or the latter intends to build or rebuild a plant with low investment costs. If in both cases a prospective buyer does not have at least a quick preliminary match, he will look for other solutions. Therefore, it is not advisable to offer used plants too early.

Why not later? Again, you have to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes: Ideally, a buyer would like to see the plant still in operation. If a plant is already shut down, the risk for costly repairs for the used non-performing parts increases quickly, especially for rotating equipment such as turbines, generators and pumps. Boilers and transformers can often be marketed successfully at later times, too.

In any case, the time window for marketing of your plants for sale should be as long as possible: for plants over 20 MWe and for very large individual components, 2 to 3 years are deemed reasonable. This way you get a realistic indication of whether there are in the market any serious potential buyers for your equipment or not.

We will be happy to discuss with you further aspects to be considered. Please do not hesitate to contact us any time.

We wish you, as our customers and partners, a Happy New Year 2022