The lowest successful bid at this year's first private license plate auction was signifi-cantly higher than that of last month, indicating a rebound in Shanghai's auto market.

This month's lowest win-ning price was 13,600 yuan (US$1,639), 8,100 yuan more than that in December. The average winning bid rose by 1,142 yuan to 14,735 yuan.

Individuals and private companies in the city are required to bid for license plates before buying cars. There is no floor price for plates as long as they are used on domestically made automobiles.

Potential buyers held their purchases at the end of 2001, following rumors that city government will either provide free license plates starting this year or raise the number of plates for sale and therefore reduce their prices.

The government, however, has continued to hold an auction and even dramatic-ally cut the number of plates put on the block, in response to the sluggish motoring industry, said an official of Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co. Ltd., organizer of the monthly sealed-bid auction.

On Saturday, the auction house, which refused to reveal the highest bid and the number of bidders, sold 1,400 plates, 600 less than last month.

The government sets the number of plates for sale each month to limit the number of new privately owned cars.

Compared with Decem-ber's winning bids, whose average was the second low-est in 2001, prices of plates surged this month due to a rise in the number of bid-ders, said the auction official, who requested anonymity.

Analysts said a continuous fall in car prices after China's entry into the World Trade Organization helped shore up the auto market.

As part of its WTO commit-ments, China sharply cut the tariff on sedans on January 1. The move has led to an aver-age 10-percent drop in prices of imported vehicles.

( eastday.com January 28, 2002)