A large, state-owned Chinese company failed to attract bidders for billions of dollars of assets it tried to sell on an ecommerce website, putting it at risk of a stock market delisting this year and underlining the  grim economic outlook for local governments across the country.

An auction on Alibaba’s Taobao platform for shares and assets originally valued at about Rmb25bn ($3.5bn) owned by Qinghai Salt Lake Potash Company, China’s biggest potash producer and known as the country’s “potash king”, closed on Wednesday without attracting a single bid. That was despite the assets being marked down to a starting price of just Rmb4.3bn, according to public information posted on Taobao.

The auction was the bankrupt company’s fifth unsuccessful attempt to sell off assets in operations connected to the production of potash, a salt rich in potassium that is often used in fertiliser.