XIAMEN Shipping Exchange has officially become operational, marking a significant step for the city towards its goal of developing itself into an international shipping centre in southeast China, Xinhua reports.

Xiamen Shipping Exchange has five major functions including ship buying, selling and leasing, cargo trading, personnel training, trading agency service and shipping information providing.

In the meanwhile, Southeast China Arbitration Court of International Shipping and Fujian Electronic Port Company have also started operation.

Last year, China State Council gave approval to Xiamen's application to set up Xiamen Shipping Exchange and gave support to its aim of developing into a southeast China shipping centre.

In the first four months of this year, Xiamen recorded a container throughput of 2.06 million TEU, up 11.82 per cent year on year and a throughput tonnage of 52.36 million tonnes, up 5.86 per cent.

Last year, Xiamen lifted 6.47 million TEU, ranking at the seventh of the ports in China and the 18th in the world.