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CHRISTOPHER TAN, Straits Times
MOST certificate of entitlement (COE) prices ended higher at the latest tender yesterday.
This was despite sluggish sales, and the prospect of an increase in COE supply from next month.
“The market was quite weak,” said Volkswagen Singapore’s general manager of sales Daniel Chong, attributing the slow sales to price increases last month. “However, it was a three-week break between this tender and the last one.”
Tenders are usually two weeks apart, but longer gaps occur occasionally because the weeks in a month are not distributed evenly.
Longer breaks usually result in more car orders, which in turn result in more aggressive bids.
The COE for cars up to 1,600cc and 130bhp ended 1.5 per cent lower at $77,400. The premium for cars above 1,600cc or 130bhp rose by 1.9 per cent to hit a five-month high of $84,504.
The Open COE, which can be used for any vehicle type but ends up mainly for bigger cars, inched up by 0.1 per cent to end at $84,100.
Commercial vehicle COE tumbled by 8.1 per cent to $49,503.
But the motorcycle premium rose by 4.7 per cent to hit a new record of $4,489 as sellers sought to clear stock of older models before a new emission standard becomes law in October.
Motorcycle traders appealed to the National Environment Agency for an extension of the deadline but were turned down. Singapore Motor Cycle Trade Association president Wilson Phoon said this was one reason why the premium shot up yesterday. “The other reason is of course the supply of COEs for motorcycles has fallen by 30 per cent from last year.”
Looking ahead, the supply of motorcycle COEs will remain flat for the May-July period. But car COE numbers should rise by 25 per cent to around 2,240 a month.
