The car sale in China bounce right back (at least for short term)
From Shanghai Daily on April 18th report:
Rebounding car sales sent the price of private license plates soaring to a one-year high at Saturday's monthly auction in the city.
The lowest winning price for a private car plate at the weekend auction was 36,800 yuan (US$4,433), a 7.2 percent increase from March, according to Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co, which organizes the monthly sale.
The average winning bid for the 5,000 plates on sale this month was 37,355 yuan, a 7.7 percent increase over last month.
Analysts said the rising price of license plates should be attributed by a rebound in car sales in March, when automakers try to appeal to buyers with new models and price discounts as the first marketing campaigns following the Chinese New Year.
"More buyers go to vehicle showrooms and stores to select their favorite models after the Lunar New Year," said Wang Jian, a 27-year-old auto salesman at one of the city's vehicle markets.
"Also many plan to get cars for traveling outside during the holiday, so they put in a high bid to assure they are successful," Wang told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the 39 carmakers it tracks reported record high sales of 256,000 vehicles in March, an increase of 72.9 percent from a month earlier and a jump of 2.48 percent from the same period last year, ending a slowdown that began in the middle of last year.
With sales slumping, the city has reduced the number of plates on sale at auctions so far this year. On average, the city has sold 4,000 plates a month this year, down from last year's average of 5,566 plates a month.
Plate prices hit their highest level ever last April, when they sold for 45,492 each on average. Prices dropped sharply in May when widely spread rumors said the city might scrap the monthly auction of plates. While prices later rebounded, they hovered under 30,000 yuan for most of the year.
Shanghai is the only city in the country that sells plates off at monthly auctions in order to control the number of cars on its streets.
Other cities sell plates for only a few hundred yuan, and have set up rules to prevent non-residents from buying plates.
Despite rumors the system would be scrapped, there have been no signs the city will cancel the auctions soon, Wang said. |
