In east China's Shanghai municipality, bids for private car license plates hit a one-year low over the weekend.

Bidding is mandatory for anyone who wishes to own a car in Shanghai. Local government releases only a limited number of plates for auction every month.

At Saturday's auction, the lowest winning bid for a private auto plate plunged to 25,000 yuan (US$3,086), the lowest since August last year. Last month's lowest winning bid was 37,900 yuan (US$4,679).

The average winning price for plates was 35,905 yuan (US$4,433), down by 2,473 yuan (US$301) from last month.

Plate prices have been steadily rising for three straight months fueled by a buying spree.

Early this month, the city's transport authority, which controls plate quotas, warned local vehicle dealers not to encourage customers to make unreasonably high bids that jack up plate prices.

"Some dealers still advise their customers to offer higher bidding prices, so the average price stays high," Yang Ping, a 33-year-old vehicle dealer, said.

"Sometimes, prices advised by dealers might be higher than the final winning price as dealers want to ensure their customers get a plate, but most of the time, we just advise them based on the previous prices and car sales," Yang said.

The government released 6,829 plates this month, up from 6,326 last month. The number of bidders, however, dropped to 7,520 from 8,777 in July.

(Shanghai Daily August 22, 2005)