Thanks for the inputs. Using the POI exporter (JXlsExporter) ... Setting the IS_AUTO_DETECT_CELL_TYPE to false resulted in leading zeros & correct time format. OK. Desirable output. Setting the parameter IS_DETECT_CELL_TYPE to false resulted in no leading zeros & correct time format. Setting the parameter IS_DETECT_CELL_TYPE to true resulted in leading zeros & incorrect time formats. Then, I used the JExcelAPIExporter. Setting the IS_AUTO_DETECT_CELL_TYPE to false resulted in leading zeros and correct time format. OK. Desirable output. Setting the IS_DETECT_CELL_TYPE to false resulted in no leading zeros and correct time formats. Setting the IS_DETECT_CELL_TYPE to true resulted in leading zeros and correct time formats. Yeah! Desirable code & output. OK, so what we have is ... POI & JExcelAPI exporters work with the deprecated IS_AUTO_DETECT_CELL_TYPE = false. JExcelAPI works with IS_DETECTED_CELL_TYPE = true. I'll be using the JExcelAPI exporter. Much obliged to you both.