MOSCOW, July 14 (RAPSI) – The Moscow commercial court has postponed the hearing of a RUB 947 million ($28 million) lawsuit filed by Rosbank against a company related to Russian mining and metals company Mechel until July 18, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Rosbank is part of the French banking group Societe Generale. The defendant is the metal trader Metallurg-Trust.

The court has also accepted a VTB24 lawsuit to collect 1.969 billion rubles ($57.8 million) from Metallurg-Trust. 

In June, the court ruled in favor of Markrose Ltd, which sued Metallurg-Trust for over $40.2 million. The initial lawsuit was filed by Russia’s MDM Bank, which later assigned its claims to the Cyprus-registered company.

According to Mechel’s financial statements, it launched transactions with Metallurg-Trust in 2010, eventually gaining influence over the trading company “within the framework of their business relations.”

Mechel, which is one of the largest Russian mining and metals groups, announced on May 13 that its coal production in the first quarter decreased 13% year on year, to 5.565 million metric tons, and that its steel output fell 21% to 1.03 million metric tons. As for February 2014, Mechel’s net debt amounted to $9 billion. Its net loss for the first nine months of 2013, calculated under US GAAP, reached $2.2 billion.