IRKUTSK, December 14 - RAPSI. The Baikalsk Pulp And Paper Mill plans to challenge $207,000 award to a coal producer, the mill reports.
On December 13 the Irkutsk Regional Commercial Court partially satisfied VostSibUgol's lawsuit awarding it 6.5 million rubles ($207,000) although the claimant initially sought to recover 32.3 million rubles ($1 million) in penalties under a coal supply contract.
The Baikalsk mill said the supply contract was signed in September 2009. "VostSibUgol supplied coal to a total of 44.5 million rubles ($1.4 million). However, Kontinental management company, a part of Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element, has never paid for the supplies," the mill's press office said. Under the contract the mill was to pay 0.2 percent of the outstanding debt for each day of delay.
The mill paid off the 44.5 million ruble ($1.4 million) debt to VostSibUgol in May 2011. However, VostSibUgol filed a lawsuit to recover 32.3 million rubles ($1 million) in penalties from the mill.
The mill argues that the coal producer could well have claimed the penalties in 2009, but it did not.
The Irkutsk Regional Commercial Court put the mill into administration on December 22, 2010 until June 22, 2012. The mills debt was 1.7 billion rubles ($55.1 million) by the end of 2010, while its market value was 1.6 billion rubles ($51.9 million). Its main creditor is Alfa-Bank, the largest private bank in Russia, which currently controls the mill