In our Press Release on August 8th, we mentioned how US consumer spending data did not support the notion of a sudden US spending boom, and that the spike in Transpacific volumes in May and June 2024 was likely driven by a front-loading of imports. The new June 2024 US inventory data, released by the US Census Bureau, shows that the US retailers have been growing inventories, which further supports the notion that the strong growth in container imports was used to grow inventories, and not due to an underlying increase in consumer spending. (....)