The Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has attracted its first ship management companies, achieving early success in one of its main goals of boosting shipping business in the port city.

As the FTZ approaches the end of its first year of operation, three wholly foreign-funded ship management companies have settled in the zone, said FTZ authorities on Thursday. The three include a consulting firm under international shipping giant Maersk.

Another six ship management companies from Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong have applied to set up in the zone and their businesses are currently being registered, according to the shipping management office of Shanghai Pudong New District, where the FTZ is located.

"Two hundred years ago, the international shipping center was London. It moved to New York last century. And now, it is transferring to Asia," said Zhang Binghua, Greater China representative of Maritime London, which represents UK-based businesses involved in maritime services.

Shanghai has great potentials due to its location and the favorable policies offered in the FTZ, and Maritime London is planning to bring premium shipping services to the city, Zhang said.

Shanghai is aiming to become an international finance and shipping center by creating a pilot zone and industry base, said Lin Weijun, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informationization.

By the end of August, about 1,000 companies and institutions in the shipping industry had registered in the Yangjing International Shipping Experimental Area in Pudong, according to Lin.

The Shanghai FTZ, which began operating last September, is a 28.78-square-km area in Pudong billed as a test bed for deepening market-oriented reforms and boosting economic vitality.