INTERVIEW-Wartsila says specialist ship markets improving

* CEO seeing orders for cruise ships, research vessels

* Sees another 2 years of overcapacity in container shipping

* Confirms 2010 forecasts for net sales, opg margin

By Victoria Bryan

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Finland's Wartsila, one of the world's largest ship engine makers, is seeing some signals of recovery in specialist areas, and is sticking to its forecasts for 2010, its CEO said on Friday.

"Towards the very end of last year and the first two months of this year, we have seen some cruise ships, research vessels, oil rigs being ordered," Ole Johansson told Reuters in an interview.

"Time will tell how quickly they will work into orders for us," he said, declining to comment on order intake in the first few months of the year.

He said that these specialist sectors would recover ahead of merchant shipbuilding, and that it would take at least a couple of years for overcapacity in the container shipping market to be absorbed.

Johansson, in London to meet investors, said he still stood by the group's 2010 forecast for net sales to fall by between 10 and 20 percent and for an underlying operating margin of 9-10 percent.

Wartsila, which claims to have equipment on one in every three ships in the world, earlier on Friday signed a deal with Raytheon to include navigation systems on its products for ship bridges, or dashboards. Johansson said Wartsila was looking to expand its ship equipment offering and would do so either via partnerships such as the Raytheon one, or with small acquisitions.

"Stepping up the know-how within the company is crucial," he said. "We have sufficient financial strength to make acquisition decisions when appropriate."

Shares in the company were flat at 35.6 pence at 1121 GMT, valuing the firm at about 3.5 billion euros ($4.76 billion). (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Rupert Winchester) ($1=.7346 Euro)