UPDATE 1-Teekay Tankers posts Q4 loss on charge; cuts dividend

* Q4 EPS 52 cents, excluding items

* Q4 rev $32 mln

* Sets Q1 dividend of 59 cents

May 15 (Reuters) - Tanker shipping company Teekay Tankers Ltd (TNK.N) posted a quarterly loss, hurt by an unrealized loss related to an interest rate swap, cut its dividend by 18 percent, and said it has fixed 62 percent of its operating days for 2009.

For the fourth quarter, the company posted a loss of $847,000, or 3 cents a share, compared with a profit of $19.6 million, or 78 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, net income would have been $13 million, or 52 cents a share, the company said.

The company declared a first-quarter dividend of 59 cents a share, down from 72 cents it had paid in the fourth quarter.

Quarterly average Suezmax spot rate was $46,497 per day and average Aframax spot rate of $33,971 per day, the company said.

"Spot tanker rates have declined significantly from the record rates achieved in 2008 and are likely to remain under pressure for the remainder of 2009 due to weak market fundamentals," Chief Executive Bjorn Moller said in a statement.

Shares of the company closed at $11.96 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan)