HUDSON, Ohio — Many Americans won't get to see their favorite fireworks displays this Fourth of July weekend. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many cities to cancel Independence Day gatherings.

For one Ohio company, that does both commercial shows and retail sales, it's seeing highs and lows this fireworks season.

What You Need To Know


  • American Fireworks Co. is almost completely dependent on China for products

  • Hundreds of firework displays have been canceled, hurting the commercial side of the business

  • Retail sales are picking up as more people buy fireworks for personal use

Hudson-based American Fireworks Company was a major fireworks manufacturer from the 1920's to the 1980's before importing products from China.

"Our business is pretty much fully-reliant on the Chinese market. They have the best products that we feel in the world, their safety, their quality has always been better than what we could do," said Roberto Sorgi, the owner of American Fireworks Company.

Sorgi is the fifth-generation owner of American Fireworks. He said about 99 percent of what you see in the air is a Chinese product—something that became challenging to get during the coronavirus pandemic.

"As China was opening up, the United States was closing down, but they're trying to get products out. Our industry had a lot of hazardous material on the water coming from China and domestically within the country, so we had this issue where we needed to actually get this freight in here or else our company and a lot of fireworks companies would see hazardous material stacking up in ports across the country," Sorgi said.

Fortunately, fireworks companies were able to get approval from authorities to off load and secure these products.

However, as product starting coming in, so did the calls. Firework displays across the country were being canceled or postponed.

"Cities at this point were having double digit cancellations. Our company traditionally shoots anywhere from 550 to 600 public events to the community within a nine-state territory," Sorgi said. "We will still produce fireworks; it's just not near the volume, which is going to crush us."

American Fireworks said its saving grace is retail sales. More people are buying fireworks for personal use since celebrations are no longer happening.

"What we're finding is no one is traveling. They're thinking this Fourth of July, 'Hey, let's have a small home gathering' and we didn't see that coming—we were doomsday prepping. In the state of Ohio, you can purchase them, but you're supposed to take them out of the state within 48 hours to shoot them."

Sorgi expects retail sales to be up by about 60 percent for the entire year.

It's a silver lining to an unexpectedly explosive year.

"The business side, it'll come back—we're not worried about that; we've been doing this for 115 years and we're gonna do it for 116 years. It's more so how do we get to next year, if the time's right next year," said Sorgi.