Asia-EuropeBox Rates Fall 5 pct

Freight rates for shipping containers from Asia to Northern Europe fell by 5.1 percent in the week ended on Friday, a source with access to data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index told Reuters.

The rates fell to $1,003 per 20-foot container (TEU).

It was the third consecutive week of falling rates on the world's busiest route. Container freight rates have so far increased in 2 weeks this year but fallen in 44 weeks.

Container freight rates from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean fell 1.3 percent in the week to Friday. To ports on the U.S. West Coast they rose 1.0 percent and to ports on the U.S. East Coast they were up 1.5 percent, the source said.

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, was one of the few container shipping companies to make a profit in the first six months of 2014.

The Danish shipping company controls around one fifth of all transported containers from Asia to Europe. (Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen