Sovcomflot (SCF Group) dropped into the red in the first quarter of 2018 in a weak tanker market.

A loss of $16.1m for the opening three months of the year marked a swing from a profit of $39.9m a year ago.

Sovcomflot says its growing energy business provided protection to earnings but the tanker market has been extremely challenging.

Nikolay Kolesnikov, chief financial officer of the company, said: “The significant imbalance between tonnage supply and demand, in the crude oil and petroleum products shipping segments heaped more downward pressure on freight rates, which had reached records lows in some sectors having fallen by almost 50% year-on-year.

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