Independence Day Fact: China Provided 85.6% of Exported Fireworks in 2017

Fireworks explode over the National Mall as the US Capitol (R) and National Monument are s
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

A website that focuses on exports reported in June that many of the fireworks lighting up American skies this Fourth of July may have come from China, the country that by far exported the most celebratory explosives — 85.6 percent in 2017.

“Among continents, Asian countries accounted for the highest dollar worth of exported fireworks during 2017 with shipments valued at $723.5 million or 86.1 percent of the global total,” Worldstopexports.com reported on June 8.

“In second place were European exporters at 12.6 percent,” the website reported. “Smaller percentages came from North America at 0.9 percent, Latin America excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, as well as Africa (0.2 percent).”

The United States comes in seventh in a list of 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of fireworks in 2017, which represent 98.6 percent of global fireworks exports that year.

1 – China: US$719.7 million (85.6 percent of exported fireworks)

2- Netherlands: $39.8 million (4.7 percent)

3 – Germany: $11.7 million (1.4 percent)

4 – Spain: $10.9 million (1.3 percent)

5 – Czech Republic: $10.3 million (1.2 percent)

6 – Poland: $8 million (1 percent)

7 – United States: $6.8 million (0.8 percent)

8 – Italy: $4.6 million (0.6 percent)

9 – United Kingdom: $3.4 million (0.4 percent)

10 – Switzerland: $3.2 million (0.4 percent)

11 – Austria: $2.6 million (0.3 percent)

12 – Hungary: $2 million (0.2 percent)

13 – France: $1.98 million (0.2 percent)

14 – Vietnam: $1.79 million (0.2 percent)

15 – Slovenia: $1.7 million (0.2 percent)

Among those 15 countries, the fastest-growing fireworks exporters since 2013 were Switzerland (up 215.7 percent), United Kingdom (up 141.0 percent), Czech Republic (up 123.3 precent), and Austria (up 111 percent), according to Worldstopexports.com.

And the United States came in number two in a field of five countries that saw a decline in exported firework sales: Germany (down -50.6 percent), United States (down -33.2 percent), Italy (down -22.4 percent), France (down -17.6 percent), and Hungary (down -12.9 percent).

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