SHIPPING Corporation of India (SCI) has suffered a loss of INR4.28 billion (US$76.24 million) for the year ended March 2012, down from a net profit of INR5.67 billion the previous year.

The hefty loss for the year was attributed to bunker fuel costs more than doubling, and finance (interest) costs increasing as much as six times to INR3.87 billion, a report by the Economic Times of India said. It notes that the carrier's loss in the January to March quarter alone was INR3.55 billion.

The result comes despite the Mumbai-based shipping line's total revenue over the 12-month period surging by 13 per cent year on year to INR43.08 billion.

"Going forward, we have restructured some of our liner services, but we are not very sure that the bulk market will improve. Tanker and offshore division should grow in the coming months," SCI chairman S Hajara, chairman, was quoted as saying.

The global economic slowdown and the excess supply of capacity has forced the carrier to halve the number of vessels it planned to acquire between 2007 and 2012 at an estimated cost of US$5 billion, bringing the number down from about 62 ships to 36.