Ritchie Bros.‘ upcoming Houston auction will be held June 21 through June 22 and will feature a 2013 Manitowoc 16000 440-ton self-erecting crawler crane.

The Manitowoc is among a surging selection of quality cranes selling at Houston and other upcoming Ritchie Bros. auctions in June, including Columbus, OH (June 15) and Polotitlan, Mexico (June 9).

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a selection of cranes like this,” said Jake Lawson, senior vice president of Ritchie Bros. “We have close to 200 cranes listed in upcoming auctions, including the massive Manitowoc 16000—cranes of this size and value don’t come to auction often. With great selections of cranes available in Houston, Columbus and Polotitlan, this is the perfect opportunity for people to get the cranes they need for upcoming work projects.”

While Ritchie Bros. sells thousands of lifting equipment items each year, including 1,400 rough terrain cranes, 450 hydraulic truck cranes, 425 all-terrain cranes and 280 crawler cranes in the past two years alone, cranes like the Manitowoc 16000 are rare. For perspective, a 2006 Manitowoc 16000 model sold at a June 2010 auction in Denver for $2.5 million. That is among the top 10 most expensive cranes ever sold in Ritchie Bros. history. The current “king of cranes” is a 2001 Liebherr LR1800 800 metric crawler crane, which sold for $3.7 million at Ritchie Bros.’ Sacramento, CA auction site in 2006.

Almost as rare as the Manitowoc 16000 is seeing unused cranes in an auction. However, Ritchie Bros. will be selling two unused Grove RT540E 40-ton rough terrain cranes in the June Houston auction. In total, Houston will sell more than 50 cranes, along with construction, aerial and transportation equipment in its auction. Polotitlan has 19 cranes and Columbus has 10, with new inventory added right up until auction day.