MOSCOW, October 3 (RAPSI) – State-run OAO Sberbank has filed six new suits against Mechel companies with the Moscow Commercial Court, according to court records.

One of these lawsuits has been filed against OAO Mechel, a parent company. The rest of the lawsuits list its subsidiaries and associates, including Korshunov Mining Plant, Bratsk Ferroalloy Plant, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, Southern Kuzbass Coal Company, OAO Yakutugol, OAO Mechel Mining, OOO Mecheltrans, OOO Mechel Service, and OOO Mechel Trans Auto.

Sberbank filed its first lawsuit against Mechel and four of its affiliated companies with the Moscow Commercial Court earlier this week. Another lawsuit was lodged with an Irkutsk Region commercial court.

Sberbank CEO German Gref said earlier that he supported VTB Bank, which had filed a lawsuit to collect nearly 3 billion rubles (about $76 million) in debt from Mechel. Gref said that Sberbank would sue Mechel to demand that it repay its overdue debts.

Andrei Kostin, chief executive officer of VTB Group, said earlier this week that the bank needed a few days to determine if the issue could be settled amicably.

Oleg Korzhov, chief executive officer of Mechel OAO, told RIA Novosti on October 2 that the company expected more lawsuits after it stopped servicing several loans. However, Mechel believes that a debt restructuring agreement could be reached with its creditors.

As of February 2014, Mechel’s net debt amounted to over $8 billion. Its net loss for the first nine months of 2013, calculated under US GAAP, reached $2.2 billion.

The company owes a large part of its debt to Russia’s three largest banks: VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank.

Mechel, which is one of Russia’s largest metals and mining groups, announced on May 13 that its coal production in the first quarter fell 13% year on year, to 5.6 million metric tons, and that its steel output plunged 21% to 1.03 million metric tons.