WELLSBURG - Mountain State Carbon, the company that operates the Follansbee coke plant, has filed a second lawsuit against Central West Virginia Energy Co., alleging the Massey Energy subsidiary is again short-supplying coal to the coke ovens.
David Fawcett, who represented Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. in a July 2007 Brooke County Circuit Court suit that saw the steelmaker win a $219 million award from Massey, said the case is similar to the earlier one.
"Inventory is at dangerously low levels," he said.
Fawcett said Mountain State is seeking an expedited hearing in the suit, which was filed during the last week of August.
So far, the suit only includes Mountain State suing Central West Virginia. The suit decided in 2007 included Massey as a defendant and Wheeling-Pitt, which was in a joint venture as a parent of Mountain State with Severstal North America, as plaintiff.
Wheeling-Pitt since has been sold to Severstal, and Severstal Wheeling has full ownership of the coke plant.
Coke plants bake coal at high temperatures to refine the mineral for further use as a fuel in blast furnaces for the reactions that convert and purify iron ore into iron.
To deal with short supplies, coal baking times in the ovens can be extended, but the heat-resistant brick linings of the ovens can be damaged, according to steel industry experts who testified during the first trial.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Court Judge Ronald Wilson.