A public auction for 200 added license plates will be held this afternoon for corporate-use vehicles, the country's first auction of its sort, the Oriental Morning Post reported.
This event, only open to state-owned companies, organizations and institutions, will be carried out on a trial basis with more auctions being held in the following months, according to officials with Shanghai Traffic Administration. 
They said the local traffic authority will adopt the auction system widely as of next year as the city moves to reform its corporate-use auto administration system.
Currently, in a bid to control traffic volumes, Shanghai holds a public auction only for private car plates.
The prices for today's plates will probably be more than 5,000 yuan (US$605) above the deposit, according to officials with the Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co Ltd, referring to the bidding so far.
"The traffic authority assigns us the auction because of our rich experience in plate auctions and our advanced trading system," said Fan Ganping, the company's vice president, proudly.
This auction is only available by phone or computer trading systems. No site-auction is provided.  The result will be published online at 4.30 p.m. when the event is over.
The Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co Ltd, the city's largest auction house, has helped the local traffic authority organize private auto plate auctions since 1994.