Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. (Business: general industry reports).

After Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers completed its final auction for 2002, the company achieved gross auction sales in excess of $1.37 billion. Final numbers and full financial results will be made public on February 26.

During 2002, Ritchie Bros. held 141 auction sales in 10 countries around the world. The auctions attracted a record number of over 156,000 registered bidders; over 50,000 of these were successful buyers. In 2001, over 139,000 bidders participated in the company's auctions and approximately 46,000 were successful buyers.

Ritchie Bros. also worked with a record number of consignors. In 2002, Ritchie Bros. received over 20,000 consignments to its …