Mersey Maritime represents Liverpool city region’s maritime sector, which is worth more than £4bn a year, employs more than 50,000 people and covers 33 diverse sub-sectors

Industry body Mersey Maritime is asking maritime sector businesses across the city region how they are coping with the disruption caused by the coronavirus.

Mersey Maritime represents Liverpool city region’s maritime sector, which is worth more than £4bn a year, employs more than 50,000 people and covers 33 diverse sub-sectors including shipping, engineering, digital, logistics, insurance and law.

In March, chief executive Chris Shirling-Rooke said the maritime sector would face “unprecedented” challenges keeping Britain and Ireland supplied as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened.

Now, with the UK in lockdown, the economy has come under severe strain and Mr Shirling-Rooke is looking to get a more accurate picture of how maritime firms are faring during the crisis.

It has developed its Ninety Second Snap Shop Survey, the results of which will be fed into the Government’s Maritime Business Continuity Taskforce, a new initiative in which Mersey Maritime is playing a leading role.

Mr Shirling-Rooke said: “We have developed the Ninety Second Snap Shot Survey to help us better understand the state of play of all of our members, as well as the immediacy of any action that may be need to be taken to support them.

“The responses are an essential source of information for policymakers and key stakeholders, helping us all to all better understand how businesses are being affected by the many challenges created by COVID-19, and perhaps more importantly supporting us all to get through this to the other side.”

Click here to take part in the Mersey Maritime survey