Shipping exec sees more tough times ahead

    LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - World shipping markets face at least two more years in the doldrums as excess ship orders depress rates, the Financial Times quoted a senior shipping executive as saying. Tor Olav Troim, an aide to Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen, said it remained too early to start buying ships cheaply to prepare for a market recovery, the FT reported in its Tuesday edition. "Without wanting to shoot ourselves in the foot, we're not too optimistic about the prospects in the next couple of years," he was quoted saying. "We have had to absorb the tonnage that is ordered and we have to go back to a world that is in growth again." However, companies in Fredriksen's Sea Tankers group had mostly prepared well for the past year's collapse in ship earnings, the FT quoted Troim as saying. Sea Containers includes oil tanker operator Frontline (FRO.OL) as well as liquefied natural gas tanker operator Golar LNG (GOL.OL) and oil drilling ship company SeaDrill (SDRL.OL), the paper noted.