3 Minutes to Read (Reuters) – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumers in the United States are already dealing with rising rates for flying fares, rental cars, and some hotels for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and now they have another pain to add to the list: the cost of fireworks. People watch the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show from the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, New York, United States, on July 4, 2019. Eduardo Munoz/REUTERS “This year, every company had to raise its prices. We didn’t have a choice in the matter “Galaxy Fireworks, based in Tampa, Florida, has four retail storefronts and 70 seasonal locations across the state, according to Sharon Hunnewell-Johnson, president. Due to the consequence of a global shipping backlog for Chinese-made items, she has had to boost pricing on some fireworks by 15 percent to 35 percent. She paid between $10,000 and $13,000 for each shipping container of fireworks last year. It now costs more than $30,000 and is steadily increasing. Multiple industries have been impacted by a lack of shipping containers and port bottlenecks as the world recovers from the COVID-19 issue, and backlogs threaten to interrupt the Christmas shopping season. Shipments to the fireworks business are still stalled at U.S. ports ahead of the year’s busiest selling season. Production and transportation problems are projected to continue into the first quarter of 2019. “Our transit timelines have been outrageously inconsistent,” said Ben Muzzey, sales manager for Spirit of ’76 Fireworks in Columbia, Missouri, a distributor and retailer. Some of the company’s shipments have taken up to three months to arrive, despite the fact that they generally take around a month. He thinks that they can only fill between 65 and 70 percent of their orders at the moment. The rising costs and scarcity of supplies come at a time when demand for home fireworks displays in the United States is at an all-time high. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, which represents 250 member firms, 273 million pounds of pyrotechnics were utilized in 2019. As a result of the epidemic, demand increased to 404.5 million pounds last year. That is still a component of the issue. Normally, there is additional inventory on hand at the end of the year, but last year’s record sales drained inventories. “All of the inventory had been depleted. During the epidemic, demand was extraordinary “Julie Heckman, the APA’s executive director, agreed. While consumers may find it increasingly difficult to obtain fireworks as the Fourth of July approaches, there is one silver lining. In the year 2020, many huge, professional fireworks shows were canceled. The fireworks from those companies sat dormant in their warehouses, waiting for this year. “For the entire year, they sat on their inventory. Last July 4th, they were all set to leave “Heckman said. Lindsay Dunsmuir contributed reporting, and Andrea Ricci edited the piece./nRead More