S&P: Energy firms drive corporate defaults to highest since post-financial crisis
The commodity crunch helped push the number of firms defaulting on their debt to the highest level since 2009, according to credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's.
Energy and natural resources companies accounted for more than half of the 72 corporate defaults so far this year. Of these, 29 were in the struggling oil and gas sector, while 12 came from the troubled metals, mining and steel industries.
Read more: We're edging closer to $50 oil
The defaults relate to debt amounting to around $121bn (£83.1bn), $83bn of which is from oil and gas as well as metals and mining.
These firms have been ripsawed by tumbling commodity prices, with production rising at a time when global demand is easing. Oil fell to multi-year lows of below $28 per barrel in January, while copper hit a near seven-year low in the same month.
Read more: Copper is heading for its third weekly decline
"We expect credit pressure to continue affecting these sectors with even more defaults stemming from oil and gas companies having fewer options to boost cash flow, barring an unlikely substantive rise in oil prices," S&P said in a note.
"So far in 2016, 53 defaulting issuers are based in the US, 10 in emerging markets, six in other developed nations (Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand) and three in Europe. In 2015, 39 issuers defaulted during this period: 23 were based in the US, seven each in emerging markets and Europe, and two in other developed countries."