The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will establish a supply chain education center in China's coastal city Ningbo, which houses the world's largest port by cargo tonnage, according to the city's education bureau on Tuesday.

The Ningbo Supply Chain Innovation Institute China, the sixth such research center run by MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics and the first of its kind in China, has started recruiting teaching staff and will recruit postgraduate students starting 2017, according to the bureau.

The center will offer training for senior executives in addition to opening master and doctoral programs.

Ningbo is a major Chinese petrochemical and manufacturing base and is home to the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the world's largest port with a cargo throughput of 890 million tonnes in 2015.

The center will promote interaction between China and the world on supply chain management and boost industrial transition in China, said Cen Xuepin, a Canadian energy investor and supply chain expert.