Patriot Coal Corporation (fka PCXCQ)

[10452km2]

Report: Patriot Coal sues Keystone Industries for breach of contract


St. Louis Business Journal by Greta Weiderman, Web Editor
Date: Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 10:18am CDT
Related: Legal Services, Energy


Greta Weiderman
Web Editor- St. Louis Business Journal


Patriot Coal sued Keystone Industries on June 1, claiming it broke a purchase contract, OregonLive.com reports.
In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Patriot claimed that Keystone hadn’t taken or paid for hundreds of thousands of tons of coal that it is obligated to purchase under the terms of the contract, according to the website.

Although Fort Myers, Fla.-based Keystone agreed to buy the coal to resell it to its own customers, the contract wasn’t contingent on Keystone finding customers to purchase the coal, Patriot argues in the filing. Patriot is suing for the value of the lost sales to Keystone plus interest.

Patriot Coal idled a coal mile in Kentucky in April and has shed about 1,000 employees since the beginning of the year. The idling is part of the company’s production cut in response to continued weakness in market demand for thermal coal. During the first quarter, Patriot idled three smaller Central Appalachian thermal coal mines that together produced about 1.2 million tons of coal in 2011.

In late May, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its ratings for Patriot further into junk status, and Moody’s Investors Services placed the company on watch for a possible downgrade. Also, a Dallas law firm announced May 24 that it was investigating to determine if Patriot Coal investors have grounds for a lawsuit.


St. Louis-based Patriot Coal Corp. (NYSE: PCX), led by recently appointed CEO Irl Engelhardt, reported a loss of $115.5 million on revenue of $2.4 billion for 2011.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2012/06/06/report-patriot-coal-sues-keystone.html