CheMatch.com Hosts the First-Ever Online Contract Auction for Phosphoric Acid.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 2000

CheMatch.com, a leading global Internet exchange for purchasing and selling bulk commodity chemicals, plastics and fuel products, announced that it completed the first-ever online contract auction for phosphoric acid. The auction, which was initiated by Millennium Chemicals (NYSE:MCH), involved procurement of a one-year contract for their annual requirements of phosphoric acid and was concluded in just under 30 minutes. Phosphoric acid is used commercially for the production of agricultural fertilizers, detergent additives, cleaners, insecticide production and cattle feed additives.

"CheMatch.com's auction technology creates efficiencies for both buyers and sellers by delivering tremendous time as well as cost savings," said Carl McCutcheon, chairman, president and CEO of CheMatch.com. "In this auction, a worldwide first for this product, we drastically reduced the procurement time from a multi-day or week event to a concise bidding period of less than one hour. Furthermore, our auction technology enables all competitors to bid simultaneously, which stimulates more competitive bidding and results in greater cost savings."

"Using CheMatch.com saved a lot of time," said Phillip Dell, Global Purchasing Manager - Raw Materials of Millennium Chemicals. "We invited five pre-qualified suppliers, four of which participated in the reverse-auction. The entire auction process took only 30 minutes versus a `traditional' bid process that might have taken weeks. The auction platform worked easily with no problems during the bid process. Not only that, we surpassed our goal for total cost savings."

CheMatch.com Auction was developed using Ariba's (NasdaqNM:ARBA), Ariba(R) B2B Commerce Platform. This Ariba B2B Dynamic Trade solution accelerates efficiencies in eCommerce by dynamically matching buyers and sellers with real-time market information. Under CheMatch.com Auction, bidding is kept confidential. Identities of participants are not disclosed to other participants during or after the auction is concluded. This anonymity ensures that participants do not have to reveal their position on a particular product. The result is credible and reliable market feedback that encourages competition and helps participants efficiently meet their commercial objectives.

About Millennium Chemicals

Millennium Chemicals Inc., (NYSE - MCH), is a major international chemicals company, with leading market positions in a broad range of commodity, industrial, performance and specialty chemicals, consisting of Millennium Inorganic Chemicals Inc., the second largest producer of titanium dioxide in the world and in the U.S.; Millennium Specialty Chemicals Inc., the world's largest producer of terpene based fragrance and flavor ingredients derived from turpentine; Millennium Petrochemicals Inc., the second largest U.S. manufacturer of acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer and producer of methanol; and 29.5% ownership in Equistar Chemicals LP, the largest producer of ethylene and polyethylene in North America.

About CheMatch.com

CheMatch.com is a leading business-to-business Internet-based marketplace for purchasers and sellers of commodity chemicals, plastics and fuel products. The CheMatch.com Global Trading Network is a worldwide exchange where users can trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Strategic and financial investors include Battery Ventures, Bayer AG (NYSE: BAYZY)(FSE: BAYG.F), Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC), DuPont (NYSE:DD), GE Plastics (NYSE:GE), Millennium Chemicals (NYSE:MCH), H. Muehlstein & Co., Inc., Reed Elsevier, Sprout Group, Stolt-Nielsen S.A. (Nasdaq:STLTF) (Nasdaq:STLBY) (Oslo Stock Exchange:SNIB) and TownsendTarnell Inc. Headquartered in Houston, CheMatch.com has international offices in Brussels, Hong Kong, Manchester (United Kingdom), Sao Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich.