Asia-Europe Box Rates Fall 5.6 pct

Freight rates for container shipping from Asia to Northern Europe fell by 5.6 percent in the Monday through Wednesday period compared with last week, to $1,085 per 20-foot container (TEU), data showed on Friday.

Rates on the route, which is the world's busiest for container shipping, were thereby 28 percent lower than at the same time in 2013.

From Asia to ports in the Mediterranean, container freight rates fell 4.8 percent from last week, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index showed.

From Asia to ports on the U.S. West Coast they fell 3.2 percent, and from Asia to ports on the U.S. East Coast they were down 0.9 percent, the index showed.

Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipper with nearly 600 container vessels and part of Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, is one of few container shipping firms to have made a net profit in the first six months of 2014.

Maersk Line controls around one fifth of all transported containers from Asia to Europe.

Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen