MOSCOW, August 3 (RAPSI) - The Moscow Commercial Court has accepted Sberbank’s withdrawal of a $393,000 lawsuit against the mining and steel giant Mechel and its subsidiaries, RAPSI reports from the courtroom on Monday.

The co-defendants are Mechel Trading AG, Mecheltrans, Bratsk Ferroalloy Plant, Mechelservis, Mechel Mining and Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant.

At the Monday hearing, Sberbank announced that on November 14, 2014, and March 2, 2015, Mechel paid off its debts in the lawsuit. The court accepted the withdrawal and ceased the legal proceedings.

Nevertheless, several Sberbank claims against Mechel and its subsidiaries are being processed by the court. On July 20, the Moscow Commercial Court upheld Sberbank’s biggest claim and ruled that Mechel pay 6.76 billion rubles ($107 million) of its debt under an October 19, 2013 loan agreement.

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 as received in mid-April.

Sberbank CEO German Gref said they were not business proposals but declarations, in particular the debt-to-shares proposal. Sberbank later said it was negotiating the sale of Mechel’s debts to Russian investors.

The bank also said it would file a claim to declare Mechel bankrupt if it fails to pay its debts.

According to the company accounts, the long-term obligations of Mechel, one of Russia’s largest steel makers now under heavy debt, increased from 91.83 bln rubles ($1.46 bln) as of the end of 2014 to 95.96 bln rubles ($1.52 bln) as of the end of July. The company’s short-term obligations as of June 30, 2015 were 73.50 bn rubles ($1.17 bln) (56.79 bln rubles or $905 mln as of the end of 2014).

Mechel is a leader in the global mining and metal industry. Founded in 2003, the group consists of 20 industrial enterprises producing coal, iron ore, steel, rolled steel, ferro-alloy, thermal energy and electricity.