Freight rates for the shipping of containers from Asia to Northern Europe fell 12.5 percent to record low $349 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended Friday, data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index showed. It was the 12th consecutive week of falling rates on the world’s busiest route, to the lowest level since the index was launched in 2009. Rates dropped 11.9 percent from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean, while they fell 1.7 percent to the U.S. west coast and fell 1.2 percent to the U.S. east coast. Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipper with more than 600 container vessels and part of Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, is the most profitable of the 20 biggest players after a cost-cutting plan that has reduced its cost per unit by more than five percent. The Danish company transports around a fifth of all containers that are shipped from Asia to Europe.