Asia-Europe Box Rates Fall Almost 6 pct

Shipping freight rates for transporting containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe fell 5.5 percent to $586 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended on Friday, a source with access to data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index told Reuters.

It was the eighth consecutive week with falling freight rates on the world's busiest trade route and the current level is the lowest since June 2013.

In the week to Friday, container freight rates dropped 9.0 percent from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean, and fell 2.7 percent to ports on the U.S. West Coast and were down 3.2 percent to ports on the U.S. East Coast.

Maersk Line, the global market leader with more than 600 container vessels and part of Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, is currently the most profitable among the 20 biggest players after a cost-cutting plan that has reduced the shipping company's cost per unit more than five percent.

The Danish shipping company controls around one fifth of all transported containers from Asia to Europe.

 

Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen