Car owners in Shanghai will now have more bidding opportunities and receive transparent information during car-plate auctions under new government rules aimed to rein in the soaring plate prices.

The first monthly auction for this year is scheduled on January 12. About 16,000 licenses, double the number last month, will be up for sale because the government has brought the February quota forward because of the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 7.

The new rules provide two bidding periods and other bids being available to buyers, to help them make offers without relying on indicative prices issued by dealers.

All bidders are required to make their first offer from 10 am to 11 am and they are allowed to change their bid twice in the 30 minutes to 11:30am.

During the bidding, the current lowest successful bid and the number of participants will be available to the public through a Website, hotlines and billboards in the bidding hall in Anting, the auto city in west Shanghai.

Shanghai is the only mainland city to issue plates by auction and the average price has increased fivefold in the past seven years.

Prices have soared because of surging demand and speculation that plates will be more expensive in the future, according to previous reports.

Last month, the average successful bid for a plate continued to rise. Last weekend, it climbed by 1,725 yuan (US$234) to hit a record 56,042 yuan — half the price of an ordinary Volkswagen car.

The local government put 7,500 car plates up for sale last month, the same amount as in November, while the number of bidders remained almost unchanged at 10,356.

Posted: 01|3|08 at 12:04 pm. Filed under: Auction News.