Shipping freight rates for transporting containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe fell by 8.8 percent to $466 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 tenth consecutive week of falling freight rates on the world’s busiest route and it is the lowest level since the index has been compiled since the end of 2009, the source said. In the week to Friday, container freight rates fell 8.4 percent from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean, rose 18.2 percent to ports on the U.S. West Coast and rose 0.6 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.