MOSCOW, June 16 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Commercial Court has registered two lawsuits filed by Sberbank to collect 40 million rubles (about $724,000) from two subsidiaries of the mining and steel corporation Mechel, the court writes on its website on Tuesday.

The court said the state-owned savings bank is suing shipping company Mecheltrans for 37.1 million rubles ($671,300), with Bratsk Ferroalloy Plant featuring as a third party. Sberbank is also suing Mecheltrans and the Bratsk plant for 2.8 million rubles ($50,700), with coal mining company Yakutugol as a third party.

Sberbank is one of Mechel’s three largest creditors, alongside VTB Bank and Gazprombank. But unlike these two banks, Sberbank is not satisfied with Mechel’s debt restructuring proposals.

Sberbank has said it is negotiating to sell Mechel’s debts to Russian investors.

James Friel, head of Rothschild Group’s business in Russia and the CIS, which is consulting Mechel in its talks with the creditor banks, told RIA Novosti on June 11 that Sberbank could sell Mechel’s debts sooner than two or three months.

Since late 2014, Sberbank and its subsidiaries have filed about 40 lawsuits against Mechel and its companies. The Moscow Commercial Court will start hearing the largest of these lawsuits, for 3.8 billion rubles (about $69 million), on June 22.

Mechel owes $2.3 billion to Gazprombank, $1.8 billion to VTB and $1.3 billion to Sberbank.

Industrial Development Minister Denis Manturov said in March that Mechel had cut its debt to $6.4 billion from $8.6 billion, according to RIA Novosti. About 40 percent of Mechel’s debt is in rubles.