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New policies on cards to spur used car sales

By Li Fangfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-08 08:25

China's second-hand vehicle market is expected to get a new lease of life with a slew of policies likely over the next few months, thanks to the record sales of new vehicles in the past few months and the stimulus measures announced by the central government.

"The long-expected policies will come out soon, which will regulate and encourage the second-hand vehicle trade in China. The era of second-hand vehicles is coming," said Shen Rong, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association on Friday.

Second-hand vehicle trading markets will be set up in 10 cities and provinces soon. [Asianewsphoto]

Shen told China Daily that the Ministry of Commerce has worked out a policy jointly with the Ministry of Finance to establish standard second-hand vehicle trading markets in 10 cities and provinces from this month onwards.

The locations include Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province, Hubei province, Shandong province, Jiangxi province and Liaoning province.

The local governments should submit their detailed plans before August 31 and finish the construction of the national standard second-hand vehicle market before July 2010, said Shen.

"According to the scheme, the standard second-hand markets in the East China should have the capability of trading more than 10,000 vehicles per year, while the markets in Central and Northeast should trade more than 3,000 units," Shen said.

Related readings:  China urges development of second-hand markets  Premier: China to boost second-hand auto market  Subsidy policy to spur commercial vehicle market  No cut in vehicle purchase tax this year: Govt

He also said that the Ministry of Commerce will soon develop software systems to regulate the second-hand markets in different regions, making them share the same database and use the same management and service systems and standards.

"The accomplished national standard second-hand network will provide local consumers one-stop services and nationwide information when they want to trade vehicles," said Shen.

"The establishment of standard trade-in markets is the first step the government would implement this year. The national standard on second-hand vehicle enterprises and on second-hand vehicle appraisal is under discussion now and will come out soon," Shen told China Daily.

Compared with Western auto markets, China's second-hand vehicles trade-in is still not off the mark yet.

In the Western matured auto markets, the second-hand vehicle business is 1.5 to 3 times new automobile sales. However, last year, second-hand sales accounted for just 30 percent of the new vehicles sales in China.

According to the association, China traded 1.5 million second-hand vehicles in the first six months, increasing 24 percent year-on-year. The trade revenue hit 69 billion yuan, up 37.46 percent from last year.