China issued its first ship trading price index on Saturday in Beijing as it aims to provide more information on price fluctuations for ship traders and industry supervisors.

The price index, jointly published by the Ministry of Transport and the government of east China's Zhejiang Province, would mainly monitor the trading prices of second-hand ships, said Gong Yinjiao, president of major indexer - Zhejiang Shipping Exchange Market Co..

The index would help guide and regulate the ship transaction market as well as provide vital information for administrative departments before decisions are made, experts said.

The monitoring data would be collected from more than 20 places in several Chinese coastal provinces, such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Liaoning, as well as the island province of Hainan, according to a statement from Zhejiang's provincial transport department released on Saturday.

Zhejiang has the country's most vigorous ship trading market. It generated a turnover of 9 billion yuan (1.37 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009, which accounted for 55 percent of the country's total volume, as reported in statistics from the department.

The index would be issued bi-weekly, according to the statement.