As July 4th approaches, the United States has ramped up its importation of fireworks for the holiday festivities. Historically, May is the largest month for fireworks imports and China is the United States’ primary supplier.

Using data from TradeIQ™, we can see that U.S. fireworks imports from China have been relatively predictable for the last four years. Imports this year are down 15.2% since last year over the time period from June – May, but the general trend of imports has remained consistent.

Below is a graph of fireworks exports to the United States from China over the time period June – May for the last four years.

 

A search in TradeView™ shows us the value of fireworks shipped from China. Here we can see that 2009 was a strong year for imports, with $83,766,121 imported in the months of April and May. This is a 30.5% increase over 2008 and a 34.2% increase over 2007 for the same time period.

May 2010 import values are not yet available, but we can see that April’s 2010 import value decreased by 38.1% from April 2009. This decrease means that May 2010 would need an increase of 23.4% or more in order for the 2010 4th of July holiday season to overtake 2009 in terms of value. This increase is unlikely given that we already know from our TradeIQ™data that May 2010 shipments decreased slightly from May 2009.