New data from the US Census Bureau, detailing both sales and inventory changes in the US up until the end of April 2024, shows absolutely no signs of a sudden surge in container demand prior to the sharp rise in container spot rates in early May 2024. As an example, Figure 1 shows that the overall trend for all three categories of US sales remained flat from the end of the pandemic through April 2024. Similarly, inventories by category and inventory-to-sales ratios show no deviations from long-term trends. (....)