Norway's Hoegh Autoliners revealed financial results that fell deeper in the red.

The loss for 2018 more than doubled the deficit a year earlier, the company reported.

Hoegh Autoliners reported a pre-tax loss of $55m last year, against a $24.7m loss in 2017. Revenue increased from $997m to nearly $1.06bn last year.

The figures mean that for the last three years, the Oslo-based car carrier operator accumulated losses of more than $300m, mostly from writing down the value of the company’s fleet.

Amid the losses, the annual report for 2018 for Hoegh Autolines shows the shareholders have injected $50m in new equity into the company.

Company CEO Ivar Hansson Myklebust said that the shareholders chose to invest in the ship operator in the beginning of 2018 as they saw it would be a challenging year.

Leif Hoegh & Co of Norway holds 61.25% of the company and principal Leif O Hoegh is chairman. The other 38.75% of the shares are held by AP Moller-Maersk, the Danish containership giant.

The company had a book equity of $668m at the end of 2018. Book equity represented 44% of the total equity at the end of last year. The board states that the main reason for the reduced result is higher bunker prices and increased interest expenses.

No dividends were paid for 2018.

Hoegh Autoliners has been strongly against introducing scrubbers on its vessels. In the annual report, it said that it has done so “for environmental, operational and financial reasons”.

It added that the implementation of the IMO sulphur cap from 1 January 2020 “will pose significant challenges for the maritime industry. The company is taking active steps to ensure full compliance with the new regulations”.

Hoegh Autoliners is one of the leading car carrier operators with a fleet of around 50 vessels.

Since 2012 the group has been subject of the global cartel investigation in the car carrier industry, wich is still ongoing. The group accepted a settlement of $21m in a plea agreement in the US in 2017, but it has not ruled out that more fines and damage claims may come from this investigation in the futures, the company said.

Myklebust said the market for vehicle transportation is expected to be challenging in the next 12 to 18 months, but that the low orderbook and expected growth in the global car sales make the company positive on the prospects longer term.

Hoegh Autoliners has no ships on order at the moment.

The annual report for 2018 revealed that group Myklebust was paid a total remuneration of $735,000 last year.