Germany

German factories saw demand collapse in March, when measures to contain the coronavirus brought the economy to a sudden halt, Bloomberg News reported. Orders fell 15.6% from the previous month, the most since data collection started in 1991 and more than economists predicted. While all sectors were affected, investment goods plunged heavily. The Economy Ministry warned of big declines in production due to the virus. The report comes as forecasters struggle to put a number on the economic damage caused by the pandemic.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said the airline is in “intense” talks with Airbus SE and Boeing Co. about postponing plane deliveries as he set out plans for surviving the coronavirus storm, Bloomberg News reported. Facing shareholders at the German company’s annual general meeting -- held online because of the pandemic -- executives said they couldn’t answer questions about negotiations for a government bailout, but that it’s in noone’s best interests to see a collapse. “The future of Lufthansa is being decided in these days,” Spohr told the meeting.

Deutsche Bank warned that the coronavirus pandemic could threaten its ambition to return to profitability this year, as Germany’s largest lender braced itself for a painful drop in earnings and a jump in loan provisions, the Financial Times reported. Despite a surge in revenue at the investment bank during the first quarter, Deutsche posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of €43m during the period, compared with a profit of €97m last year, the Frankfurt-based lender said on Wednesday.

Switzerland and Austria pledged to help Lufthansa with state-backed loans as the German airline pursues talks with Berlin over a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) rescue package, Reuters reported. The Swiss government said on Wednesday it will ask parliament for 1.275 billion francs in loan guarantees for Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) units Swiss and Edelweiss. Strict travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic have brought flights to a near-halt across the world and there is no end in sight for when they can restart, leaving many airlines begging governments for rescue packages.

Lufthansa might seek some form of protection from creditors while talking to the Berlin government about a 9 billion euro ($9.76 billion) rescue package, a company source said on Tuesday after government and airline sources said talks on a deal were continuing, Reuters reported. The company source said the type of creditor protection under consideration would require the company to be still solvent, with management staying on to oversee a restructuring.

The German company that built three Coastal-class vessels for B.C. Ferries more than a decade ago is insolvent, Business in Vancouver reported. A B.C. Ferries official said Friday that the organization has no relationship with the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard anymore, since the warranty period for the ships was two years. “We don’t have any service or maintenance relationship with them,” B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said Friday.

Politicians in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government on Sunday signalled further support for struggling businesses and consumers in the coronavirus crisis, focusing on hotels, restaurants and pay for short-time workers, Reuters reported. Dehoga, an industry association that includes a large share of often small family-owned operations, told Bild am Sonntag that some 70,000 restaurant and hotel operators, which employ 223,000 people, could face insolvency as they stood to lose up to 10 billion euros of sales by the end of April.

Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, will probably shrink by 9.8% in the second quarter, its biggest decline since records began in 1970, due to measures imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, the country’s leading think tanks said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. That would be more than double the drop seen in the first quarter of 2009, during the global financial crisis, the economic institutes said. Germany has been in virtual lockdown for several weeks.

The German and French economies are in the grip of historic recessions which are set to wipe out many years of growth in only a few months, according to forecasts published on Wednesday as leading bodies warned of the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the global economy and trade, the Financial Times reported.

Lufthansa will close its Germanwings low-cost airline as part of a broader overhaul including capacity cuts across the group, it said on Tuesday as it warned it could take years for the industry to recover from the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported. The group, which also owns the Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Eurowings brands, said the coronavirus had forced it to accelerate radical restructuring steps. Its shares were up 1.1% in late trading.