ATLANTA - ForestExpress, a global e-commerce marketplace dedicated to the forest products industry, today announced partnerships with Boise Cascade Corporation and with Willamette Industries, Inc., two leading forest product companies. Boise Cascade and Willamette join as equity partners alongside of Georgia-Pacific Corp., International Paper, Weyerhaeuser Company, and The Mead Corporation. "ForestExpress will offer an expanded reach for buyers and sellers across the forest products marketplace," said George J. Harad, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Boise Cascade. "We feel that ForestExpress provides tremendous resources for businesses to grow and strengthen their business through e-commerce". "ForestExpress offers an online open marketplace for buyers and sellers who are now able to conduct business with increased efficiency, providing a greater return on time and financial resources," said Duane McDougall, Willamette Industries CEO. As part of the equity partnership, Boise Cascade and Willamette will each have a representative from their respective companies on the ForestExpress Board of Directors. "Adding Boise Cascade and Willamette Industries to our partner roundtable shows tremendous confidence and commitment to create a better, more efficient marketplace for the industry as a whole by providing enhanced services to customers and increasing efficiency with suppliers," said Keith Russell, ForestExpress CEO. "Our goal is to simplify and accelerate the adoption of electronic commerce across the industry. ForestExpress is taking a leadership role to facilitate the utilization of Internet technology and to create a foundation for common industry standards to develop in the timber, recycling, paper, and building materials market segments. In addition, ForestExpress will provide a neutral platform linking thousands of buyers and sellers across the industry with its automated Internet transaction based model. Providing both procurement and sales functions means the on-line marketplace will also enable participating companies to streamline purchasing operations, reduce inventories, cut internal costs and increase capital efficiency in the industry. The paper and forest products industry in the United States currently ships more than $200 billion worth of products annually and is expected to reach a 4.6 percent global GDP growth in 2000 for the pulp and paper industry, up from 3.4 percent in 1999. According toMatt Berler, analyst and a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, companies leveraging Internet technologies through an e-commerce marketplace will be enabled with a closer reach to their core customers, providing a competitive advantage in the increasingly competitive market. ForestExpress (www.forestexpress.com), a global e-commerce marketplace dedicated to the forest products industry, fundamentally improves the way people buy and sell forest products. ForestExpress will enable buyers and sellers the ability to simplify transaction processes, improving information flow and increasing speed of delivery, thereby reducing costs. Launching Winter 2000, ForestExpress will provide numerous services to the timber, recycling, paper, and building materials market segments. Equity partners include Boise Cascade Corporation, Georgia-Pacific Corp., International Paper, The Mead Corporation, Weyerhaeuser Co. and Willamette Industries, Inc. ForestExpress is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.