Sales of used vehicles were estimated at 2.7 million units in 2006 in China, said sources with the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.

 

The estimate was based on sales figures in the country's 255 main trading markets for used vehicles, which soared 31.5 percent to 1.906 million vehicles last year.

 

Sales of used vehicles and new ones were in the ratio of one to 2.67 last year, compared with one to three in the previous year, said the sources.

 

Seventy percent of the 2.7 million used vehicles were purchased by individuals and 40 percent were sedan cars.

 

One third were less than three years old and 59.53 percent had been on the road from three to ten years.

 

Sales increased most rapidly in economically developed regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, south China's Guangdong province and east China's Zhejiang province.

 

China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest market for new vehicles in 2006 after the United States. More than 7.2 million new vehicles were sold in China last year, up 25.13 percent year-on-year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)