ST. PETERSBURG, March 27 - RAPSI. On May 14 the Thirteenth Commercial Court of Appeals will hear an appeal filed by the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard against a lower court decision to collect $9.7 million of the debt it owes to the Petersburg-based Znamya Truda plant for equipment supplies.

The shipyard challenged the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Regional Commercial Court's February 15 decision to recover the debt for equipment supplied under a contract signed in September 2009.

The court commenced a supervision procedure in Baltiysky Zavod on January 13 under a bankruptcy case. Commercial courts are currently considering petitions filed by several creditors to have their claims included in the creditors' list which totals 16 billion rubles ($547.3 million). This figure includes the 323.29 million rubles ($11 million) the shipbuilder owes Znamya Truda.

Baltiysky Zavod is part of the United Industrial Corporation owned by ex-senator Sergey Pugachyov. The plant builds icebreakers and military vessels. It also manufactures a wide range of engineering products and energy equipment and supplies nonferrous and core-mold castings.