People watch fireworks exploding over New York's Empire State Building to mark U.S. Independence Day from Weehawken of New Jersey, the United States, July 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

US firework imports in 2019.

US President Donald Trump kicked off his country's Fourth of July celebrations on Saturday night, featuring one of the largest fireworks displays ever, with industry insiders estimating bulk of the total number of fireworks originating in China.

The celebration was called a "Salute to America" and featured more than 10,000 fireworks stretching for almost a mile, making it one of "the largest in recent memory," according to US Secretary of the Interior.

In 2019, China made up 95 percent of US' total number of imported fireworks, amounting to $320 million, according to WorldCity, a website that cited data from the US Census Bureau.

"The advantage of China's fireworks production enterprises lies in a variety of products and reliable quality. Although there are also fireworks export factories in Mexico and Africa, the quality is incomparable to that of the Chinese," Zhong Fang, from Dangcing Fireworks in Liuyang city, Central China's Hunan Province told the Global Times on Sunday

Liuyang is one of world's largest fireworks and firecrackers production and trading cities, with its products sold to more than 100 countries and regions around the world. The EU, the US, and various countries in Southeast Asia are the main export markets for Liuyang's fireworks.

However, exports to the US have declined in 2020 as many large scale events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, according to business insiders.

"This year's US orders were reduced by 30 percent due to the coronavirus outbreak in the US," Zhong Fang, from Dangcing Fireworks in Liuyang told the Global Times on Sunday.

"We mostly export professional fireworks. The ban on social gatherings caused a lot of large-scale celebration events to be canceled. However, orders from individual consumers have not been affected," she said.

The decline in exports to the US also forced many companies to shift to other markets. 

"The US is one of our biggest export destinations. However, this year we have received no orders so far. Many of our regular customers, usually big companies, said they have no demand at the moment. We are now developing other markets, such as Malaysia," an employee with Honey Boom Fireworks told the Global Times on Sunday.

US imports of Fireworks dropped 13 percent from $213 million to $185 million through the first five months of 2020 compared to the same period during the previous year, according the US Census Bureau data.


Newspaper headline: China’s firework exports fall despite 4th of July gala