Wednesday, March 18, 2:6 p.m .: The US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has demanded an aid package in the tens of billions for the ailing aerospace industry after enormous losses due to the coronavirus epidemic. Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Tuesday that the battered industry needed “at least $ 60 billion in liquidity, including loan guarantees”. The long-term prospects for the industry are still good, but until global passenger traffic returns to normal, these measures would be necessary to deal with the pressure on the aviation sector and the economy as a whole, Boeing said. “This will be one of the most important opportunities for airlines, airports, suppliers and manufacturers to bridge the tense financial situation until the markets recover.” The money would benefit the existence of the entire industry as much of Boeing’s liquidity aid was for payments to suppliers to maintain the supply chain, Johndroe said. The aircraft manufacturer declined to say what proportion of the bailout package is intended for its suppliers. Reuters
Tuesday, March 17th, 10.07pm: The genetic diagnostics and biotech company Qiagen is expanding its capacity for the production of corona test kits. This was announced by Qiagen on Tuesday evening.
The MDax company has been producing the test kits for the novel virus for several weeks. So far, it can enable around 1.5 million tests per month. Qiagen now wants to be able to produce material for 6.5 million patients by the end of April and for 10 million by the end of June 2020. To this end, the group is expanding its production. Qiagen said nothing about the costs. dpa
Tuesday, March 17th, 6.10pm: For the German sporting goods manufacturer Adidas, the corona crisis has increasingly drastic consequences. Until further notice, the company closes all of its stores in Europe, the USA and Canada, as well as the respective shops of the Reebok subsidiary brand. “In spite of the closings of their planned working hours, the employees concerned will be compensated accordingly,” said a group spokeswoman and spoke of “several hundred” affected stores.
Just last week, Adidas announced that it would lose one billion euros in sales in China alone due to the corona virus in the first three months of this year. Adidas itself operates around 500 shops in China, and a further 11,500 outlets are operated by third parties. According to CEO Kasper Rorsted, 70 percent of the shops in China are now open again. By Uwe Ritzer
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Tuesday, March 17th, 5:30 p.m .: US President Donald Trump wants to support the country’s citizens in the fight against the corona crisis with state money payments. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the government wanted to send a cashier to every American as soon as possible. “The Americans now need cash. And by now I mean: within the next two weeks,” he said.
Mnuchin pointed out that countless companies in the United States should have closed in the past few days, including restaurants and bars. Many workers therefore no longer receive wages. How high the money transfers should be was initially unclear. Republican and Democratic politicians had suggested an amount of at least $ 1,000 per adult, some even requiring payments over several months.
Payments by check are still common in the United States. Since there is no European reporting system in the USA, it is unclear whether and how all citizens would actually get their money. The finance minister emphasized that particularly rich Americans should not receive a check. He also announced a 90-day deferral for citizens and businesses. By Claus Hulverscheidt
Tuesday, March 17th, 5.10pm: After Volkswagen, Daimler is also suspending a large part of its production in Europe due to the corona pandemic. This affects the production of cars, vans and commercial vehicles and will initially apply for 14 days from this week, Daimler said on Tuesday. “With these measures, the company is doing its part to protect the workforce, break the chain of infection and curb the spread of this pandemic,” said the automaker.
Global supply chains cannot currently be fully maintained. Daimler is preparing for a phase of temporarily lower demand by shutting down production and securing the company’s financial strength. The economic impact of the virus pandemic cannot currently be quantified. Reuters
Tuesday, March 17th, 2:29 pm: Food supply in Germany is guaranteed in the Corona crisis, according to Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner. “The food supply is secured,” said the CDU politician on Tuesday in Berlin. “I want to say clearly: the supermarkets remain open.” Everything else is false reports. On the one hand, Germany is well supplied with domestic food such as potatoes, cereals, cheese or pork, on the other hand, restrictions on cross-border traffic are not about goods transport.
The supply of animals is also ensured, said Klöckner. Retail chains are trying to quickly refill empty shelves and increase the delivery frequency, where there are temporary bottlenecks. In many supermarkets, pasta or toilet paper has been sold out time and again in the past few days. The minister proposed to set up special lanes at border crossings so that important goods deliveries and animal transports are not stuck in traffic jams for hours.
Klöckner emphasized that the entire food industry, from agriculture to the cashiers in the supermarket, is systemically important and must be counted among the sensitive or critical infrastructure in order to maintain all supply chains. dpa
Tuesday, March 17, 2:18 p.m .: According to the Deutsche Bundesbank, the supply of cash to the population is also secured in the coronavirus crisis. “The cash will not run out in Germany, our safes are full to the brim, the logistics are right,” said Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann in Frankfurt on Tuesday. This also applies if the virus spreads further and additional measures are taken as a result.
At the same time, Beermann emphasized that bills and coins pose no particular risk of infection. The main transmission path of the coronavirus is droplet infections through coughing, sneezing, but also speaking, added the infectiologist and head of the Frankfurt Health Office, René Gottschalk. If the virus were transmitted via banknotes or rags, the number of cases would be higher, said Gottschalk.
The German credit industry (DK) had already assured that the population could trust that “they would be provided with banking services as usual”: payment transactions with all payment options would be maintained unchanged, ATMs would be adequately stocked with cash. The bank employees should be available for their customers – if necessary in the home office. dpa
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