Opening a large HTML document containing a table with 22 columns and 4000
rows takes around 5 minutes on my Dual Xeon 2.8 ghz with 2gb of Ram.
If i resave in Excel HTML format it takes about 20 seconds to re-open.

Is there anyway to improve the load time? I notice that the operation
results in 8.5 million soft page faults.

Excel is obviously converting the standard HTML to its own internal format.
e.g.

<TR class=tableRow
<TD class=defBgColor colSpan=3 </TD
<TD noWrapABC</TD
<TD align=right1.4000</TD
<TD align=right1.5750</TD
<TDUSD</TD
<TD align=right0</TD
<TD align=right(20,000)</TD
<TD align=right(3,150,000)</TD
<TD align=right(350,000)</TD
<TD class=flashHeiglight(350,000)</TD
<TD align=right(1)</TD
<TD class=flashHeiglight622,469</TD
<TD align=right2</TD
<TD class=flashHeiglight739,835</TD
<TD align=right2</TD
<TD class=flashHeiglight739,835</TD
<TD align=right3</TD
<TD align=right6,134,840</TD
<TD align=right15</TD
<TD align=right0</TD
<TD </TD
<TD align=right(46,218)</TD
<TD align=right0</TD
<TD align=right289</TD</TR


becomes

<tr height=15 style='height:11.25pt'
<td colspan=15 height=15 class=xl57 width=1049 style='height:11.25pt;
width:791pt' </td
<td class=xl58ABC</td
<td class=xl59 width=161 style='width:121pt' x:num1.4</td
<td class=xl59 width=70 style='width:53pt' x:num="1.575"1.575</td
<td class=xl60 width=79 style='width:59pt'USD</td
<td class=xl59 width=71 style='width:53pt' x:num0</td
<td class=xl61 width=80 style='width:60pt' x:num="-20000"-20,000</td
<td class=xl61 width=80 style='width:60pt' x:num="-3150000"-3,150,000</td
<td class=xl61 width=161 style='width:121pt' x:num="-350000"-350,000</td
<td class=xl62 width=77 style='width:58pt' x:num="-350000"-350,000</td
<td class=xl59 width=59 style='width:44pt' x:num-1</td
<td class=xl62 width=85 style='width:64pt' x:num="622469"622,469</td
<td class=xl59 width=64 style='width:48pt' x:num2</td
<td class=xl62 width=85 style='width:64pt' x:num="739835"739,835</td
<td class=xl59 width=61 style='width:46pt' x:num2</td
<td class=xl62 width=85 style='width:64pt' x:num="739835"739,835</td
<td class=xl59 width=57 style='width:43pt' x:num3</td
<td class=xl61 width=161 style='width:121pt' x:num="6134840"6,134,840</td
<td class=xl59 width=88 style='width:66pt' x:num15</td
<td class=xl59 width=88 style='width:66pt' x:num0</td
<td class=xl60 </td
<td class=xl61 width=61 style='width:46pt' x:num="-46218"-46,218</td
<td class=xl59 width=55 style='width:41pt' x:num0</td
<td class=xl59 width=50 style='width:38pt' x:num289</td
<td colspan=42 class=xl24 style='mso-ignocolspan' </td
</tr

Does anyone have any information about how best to construct the original
HTML such that Excel can re-render in a more efficient manner. Can this
process be controlled in anyway?

Regards
Phil

Using Excel 2003 (11.6355.6408) SP1 on Windows XP Prof v2003 SP1