The steel sector and related ETF broke down after Vale SA (NYSE: VALE) suspended dividends following a dam breach that left 60 dead and 292 missing in Brazil.
The VanEck Vectors Steel ETF (NYSEArca: SLX), the lone steel sector-specific ETF, declined 3.0% on Monday.
VALE shares plunged 15.3% Monday after the Brazilian miner suspended dividends, share buybacks and executive bonuses, following Friday’s fatal dam breach, the company’s worst disaster since 2015.
Mayor Avimar de Melo of Brumadinho, which was partly leveled by the spill, is seeking millions in damages and accused Vale’s “incompetence” for the catastrophe, Bloomberg reports.
“Given that this is the second dam burst linked to Vale, we would expect more stringent remediation requirements and tougher penalties,” Macquarie Capital Ltd. analysts including Grant Sporre wrote on Monday.
“The market’s always going to react, but the mine that’s involved is only about 7% of Vale’s output and so not massively material at this stage,” Vivenne Lloyd, senior analyst at Macquarie said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “The probability of more stringent inspections and potential shutdown of other mines using similar methods has elevated since the disaster.”