No general recovery in the global shipping market is likely in next two years with the expected oversupply of tonnage, says Cosco chairman Ma Zehua, Reuters reports.

"I don‘t think the market will recover within the next two years. There are a lot of new building orders, which means the chances of the supply-demand imbalance improving soon are small," he said.

"Improving income is very difficult, if you want to increase the freight rate it‘s tough, it’s not possible, the only way is to control costs," Mr Ma said.

Speaking on the sidelines of conference in Chongqing, Mr Ma said the flood of tonnage in the market that started in 2008 has dragged down freight rates throughout the world's trade lanes ever since.

Mr Ma said his firm now focused on cost control, securing long-term customers and expanding in emerging markets, such as South America and the Middle East, to counter the slump. "Everyone will compete on costs," he said.

The state-owned conglomerate runs 800 ships. China Cosco, the flagship firm, escaped delisting by selling assets when it posted a narrow profit in 2013.

After two straight years of losses, it would have delisted in Shanghai had it produced a third loss-making year.