Tanker rates have been in the eye of the storm in 2017 and Russian owner Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is not banking on a swift return to calmer waters.

The Russian shipowner noted tanker companies have been facing especially severe markets, which tipped the state-backed owner into the red across the first nine months of the year.

Chief financial officer Nikolay Kolesnikov told TradeWinds in a post-results interview that the conventional tanker market had experienced a “special year”.