On February 1, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order implementing an additional 10% tariff on goods imported from China that enter the United States starting Tuesday, February 4. Here’s what you need to know about how this affects the consumer fireworks industry and what steps you can take to minimize the impact to your next wholesale fireworks order.
What does the tariff apply to?
The order applies to all products from China, without exception. All of the fireworks we sell at Superior Fireworks are imported from China. There is no American manufacturing base for consumer fireworks, and few other countries have the capacity or expertise to produce them to U.S. standards.
Current on-hand inventory is not impacted, and neither is inventory that was already “loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading or in transit on the final mode of transport prior to entry into the United States” by February 1.
As such, all fireworks loaded for shipping from China starting February 1 will be subject to this additional tariff. This coincides with the start of the peak shipping season from Chinese New Year through the middle of May for fireworks to arrive in the United States for 4th of July celebrations.
Thankfully, we have already received a significant amount of inventory to start our 2025 season, and the vast majority of items currently offered for pre-order to wholesale customers are already in transit on shipping vessels, which provides a buffer period before most prices are impacted.
Who pays the tariff?
We do. Importers like us pay tariffs to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service based on the value of the goods being imported. This is paid as each shipment is processed before arriving at a U.S. port of entry and becomes part of our landed cost of goods.
How do tariffs impact pricing?
Tariffs are included in the calculation we use to set pricing, along with the amounts paid for manufacturing, overseas shipping rates, brokerage fees, and even exchange rate adjustments. Since we expect these new tariffs to be temporary, we are passing them along as closely as possible to actual cost rather than applying normal markup.
On average, our wholesale prices will increase about 4% after we sell through on-hand stock and move into newly imported inventory that is subject to these tariffs.
When will pricing be updated?
We updated wholesale prices effective February 3 for pre-order items that have not yet loaded for shipment from China, since those are the first products impacted. There is no on-hand inventory to sell through, and the inventory currently offered for sale will be subject to the additional tariff when it ships from our warehouse in China over the next few weeks.
Products immediately impacted are:
- Feeding Frenzy
- American Creed
- Compound “V” Green Glitter Mines to Gold Willows
- Sons of Liberty
- Silver-to-Red Stars with Tails
For customers who have already placed orders that include these pre-order items, we are honoring the existing pricing on your order.
Moving forward, prices will be adjusted on an item-by-item basis as we transition into inventory received with the additional tariff.
Our Commitment to You
We understand that any price increase is unpleasant, but we are committed to treating you fairly and communicating as transparently as possible about how current events impact all of us. We will increase prices only when necessary, to the extent required to cover these additional costs, only for the duration that they are needed.
Our best recommendation at the moment is to place your wholesale order as early as possible to minimize the number of items that are impacted by these new tariffs. Orders placed by the end of February can also take advantage of our Early Ship Sale for an extra 10% off, which more than offsets any price increases.
If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team and we’ll be happy to help.
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