Germany has awarded the shipping and shipbuilding industries a €1bn ($1.12bn) stimulus package as part of measures to revive the country's pandemic stricken economy.

The shipping and shipbuilding sectors will be able to access the funding in 2020 and 2021.

They are expected to use the cash-injection to "strengthen, modernise and digitise" the maritime sector.

The measures were announced by Germany's coalition of centre-right and centre-left parties as part of a €130bn package of measures to boost the green sectors of the economy.

Details were unveiled yesterday in a statement by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

They include a funding program for LNG bunker vessels, a fleet renewal program for state-owned vessels, and a program to encourage environmentally-friendly modes of shipping.

The program will also promote alternative fuels with the German government pledging to invest €7bn in hydrogen as the "fuel as the future."

Intensive lobbying

The measures follow after intensive lobbying by German shipyards and trade unions.

These have expressed fears that German shipbuilding facilities may be destroyed as a consequence of the coronavirus

In recent years, German yards have built up a lucrative niche, focusing on cruiseships, ropax ferries, yachts and offshore vessels.

But the spread of the pandemic has decimated these sectors as demand for cruise and passenger vessels has dried up.

That has had severe consequences for both of Germany's cruise shipbuilding conglomerates — Meyer Werft and MV Werften.

These have put workers on short-term contracts and are looking at trimming the workforce.

Meyer's shipyard in Turku, Finland, has announced 450 of its 2,386 employees will be made redundant.

Meanwhile, jobs at Meyer Werft's main site in the German city of Papenburg, which employs 3,600 workers, remain the subject of negotiations.

Meyer Werft has work until 2024, but it is still expecting to reduce production from three cruiseships per year to two.

Similar challenges are affecting MV Werften, which runs three shipyards in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund.

Separately, the troubles in the ro-ro and ropax sector were highlighted on 27 April when Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft fell into administration.