Second-hand car sales increase faster than new car sales

The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce stated on July 11 that since 2011, China's auto market has begun to transition from high-speed growth to steady growth, and the role of used-car circulation in expanding auto recycling will become increasingly prominent. At the end of 2012, China’s vehicle ownership exceeded 120 million vehicles, an increase of 63.92 million vehicles compared to the end of 2007, and the status of end-of-life vehicle recycling and dismantling in the automotive industry and the development of circular economy will be even more important.

Data show that in 2012, the used-car trade volume was 359.5 billion yuan, an increase of 22.6% year-on-year, and the transaction volume was 7.94 million, an increase of 16.4% year-on-year. The growth rate was 12.1 percentage points higher than the sales of new cars, which was equivalent to 41% of new car sales. With the acceleration of automobile replacement, the recycling and dismantling industry of end-of-life vehicles has also steadily increased. At the end of 2012, there were 522 waste recycling and dismantling enterprises in the country. In 2012, total sales amounted to 7.85 billion yuan, and 1.15 million scrapped motor vehicles were recycled, a year-on-year increase of 0.5%.

According to the person in charge of the Department of Market System Construction of the Ministry of Commerce, in order to regulate the use of used cars, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, has successively introduced policies such as the Measures for the Administration of Second-hand Car Circulation and the Regulations for the Use of Used Cars, effectively guiding the healthy development of the industry. In the next step, aiming at the issue of transparent use of used car market information that consumers are most concerned about, relevant sources of the China Automobile Dealers Association disclosed that the association has drafted the “Second-hand Car Appraisal and Evaluation Technical Specification”, which has been submitted to the National Standards Committee for review.