China 'cash for clunkers' yields 63,000 sales in Nov, up 66%

Shanghai December 2 (Gasgoo.com) The Chinese government's "cash for clunkers" program produced 63,000 vehicle sales in November, up 66% compared with the previous month, the Oriental Morning Post reported Thursday, citing data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

In the January to November period, the program has boosted consumer spending of 38.2 billion yuan ($5.74 billion) on new vehicles by granting subsidies of 4.97 billion yuan, yielding sales of 347,000 units.

Jiangsu province, with clunkers sales of more than 50,000 units last month, was ranked first among the top five provinces that launched the "old vehicle for new" program, followed by Zhejiang, Shandong, Hebei and Sichuan province. Combined clunkers sales of the five provinces accounted for 51% of the national total.

The program was originally launched on June 1, 2009 to help increase demand after a poorer showing in 2008, providing subsidies ranging from 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan per person for replacing their old, polluting vehicles with new ones. Vehicles that are eligible for the subsidies include medium-size buses and trucks in addition to cars.

However, due to consumers' complaining the subsides are too limited, the Chinese government raised the maximum amount of subsidies to 18,000 yuan on December 31, 2009, and has later extended the program to December 31, 2010 to maintain the rapid growth.

There is no news about whether or not the program will be further extended next year.