NYBOT To Launch Pulp Futures Contract This Friday, March 4 Options To Follow On Monday, March 7

New York, NY, February 28, 2005 – The New York Board of Trade® (NYBOT®), the world's leading "soft" commodity exchange, will launch its Pulp Futures contract this Friday, March 4, with the Options on Pulp Futures contract beginning the following Monday, March 7. The trading hours for both contracts will be from 8:00 AM until 9:30 AM (NY Time).

Pulp is derived from natural plant materials and is used to make a wide range of products such as paper and paperboard, representing an $86 billion dollar industry. Canada, the U.S., and the Nordic countries are the largest producers of pulp. The NYBOT contract is for 20 air-dry metric tons of Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK) pulp, which must be a commercially accepted "prime" grade of a specific moisture, dirt count and brightness. Pulp Futures contracts, priced in U.S. dollars, will be listed for February, April, June, August, October and December months, with April 2005 the first contract to be listed.

Please visit the Pulp section on the NYBOT website (www.nybot.com/pulp) for more information regarding the new contracts.

The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) is New York's original futures exchange, where the world trades food, fiber and financial products. For well over a century, the New York Board of Trade has provided reliability, integrity and security in a global marketplace for cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice and sugar, as well as currency and index futures and options. Information about the New York Board of Trade can be found at www.nybot.com and www.nybotlive.com.