The Chinese mainland's second petroleum exchange started trading on Wednesday in Dalian, a port city in northeastern Liaoning province.

The Dalian Petroleum Exchange would mainly deal with spot transactions of fuel oil, bitumen and petrochemical products, said Zhou Peiliang, general manager of the exchange.

Zhou said the exchange would build itself into a "trading, pricing and information center".

The exchange's annual trading volume would exceed 10 billion yuan (US$ 1.3 billion).

The exchange was set up on December 25 last year with registered capital of 10 million yuan (US$ 1.3 million). Its members are about 150 member companies of its predecessor, the Dalian Bonded Area petrochemical market.

The Shanghai Petroleum Exchange, the first exchange for the trade of oil products on the Chinese mainland, opened on August 18 last year.