AN extended slowdown in trade and depressed freight rates will spur more consolidation in Asia’s container shipping sector, the heads of AP Möller-Maersk and Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. told their companies in their traditional New Year’s speeches to employees.

Even though 2016 saw the collapse of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping, an unprecedented three-way merger of Japan’s three biggest lines, and the sale of Singapore’s major shipper Neptune Orient Lines, firms will continue to join forces in an effort to cut costs, the two executives said.

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