Asia-Europe spot rates started to slide after a rapid rise the week before on the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI), falling 10.4 per cent to US$1,175 per TEU by Friday's close, Reuters reports.

The decline came after last week's jump of 88 per cent on the Far East-northern Europe route, the world's busiest, where box rates have only increased in 12 weeks and fallen in 32 this year.

"Within just one week the most recent general rate increases have eroded 22 per cent, reflecting how ineffective they are at improving revenue streams," said container derivative trader Richard Ward from Freight Investor Services in London.

In the week through Friday, rates rose 7.8 per cent from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean, fell by 3.1 per cent to ports on the US west coast and were down 2.6 per cent to US east coast ports.