Tianjin, a major automobile port near Beijing, witnessed a dramatic decline in its vehicle arrivals in the first quarter of this year, despite China's discontinuation of its import quota system and an import-duty reduction for the automotive industry.

Local customs sources said that Tianjin imported 10,699 motor vehicles from January to March, down 50 percent from the level one year earlier.

In the first three months, Tianjin imported 4,065 motor vehicles from Japan, down 44 percent year-on-year; 2,134 vehicles from the Republic of Korea, down 76 percent; and 2,249 units from Germany, down 31 percent.

Industry analysts owed the import decline largely to a robust growth in China's vehicle production and a shift in industrial policy.

Last June, China's new policy for the development of the auto industry forbade warehouses at bonded zones at all Chinese ports to store motor vehicles to be sold on the domestic market and levied taxes on vehicle imports soon after their arrival, dampening enthusiasm of auto importers.

China's largest vehicle port, Tianjin accounts for approximately 40 percent of the nation's total annual vehicle arrivals and is seen as a barometer of motor vehicle supply in the country.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2005)