China's automotive aftermarket hits 1 trillion yuan in 2020: Ministry of Commerce

China's automotive aftermarket is estimated to have hit 1 trillion yuan ($153.78 billion) in 2020, said the country's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) Wednesday. The sector has given a tremendous boost to consumption related to the auto industry, the ministry added.

Photo taken on July 12, 2020 shows the display area of FAW-Volkswagen during the 17th China Changchun International Automobile Expo in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin province. (Photo/Xinhua)

The automotive aftermarket refers to deals and services related to sold automobiles. Citing China Automobile Dealers Association, MOFCOM said that over 14.34 million used vehicles were traded last year in China, down by 3.9 percent from a year ago. The decrease narrowed 15.7 percent compared with that in the first half of the same year. Total transaction volume stood at 888.8 billion yuan, shrinking 5.0 percent year on year.

MOFCOM estimated that the country had recycled and dismantled nearly 2.4 million scrapped vehicles last year, up 4.5 percent year on year, including 2.06 million automobiles and 332,000 motorcycles.

According to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the value of the Chinese car tuning market hit 65.2 billion yuan last year, up 7.1 percent from a year ago. The country is seeing increasing demand from customers to modify their vehicles.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Transport indicated that as of the end of 2020, China had issued business permits to 214 online car-hailing firms, as well as 2.89 million licenses to car-hailing drivers. A total of 2.1 billion car-hailing orders were placed in the fourth quarter last year, according to a national monitoring platform for the industry.

The number of vehicle charging facilities surged by 37.9 percent from a year ago to 1.68 million in 2020, including 807,000 public charging poles and 874,000 private ones, said the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance. China also has 555 battery-switch stations, which are mainly located in Beijing, Guangdong and Zhejiang, the organization said.