KUALA LUMPUR (April 16 2003) : "People are talking about risingproduction in coming months and prospects of stocks reaching one milliontonnes at the end of April," said one dealer.

"The market is cautious, but luckily the physical side was quite active.This helped cushion the falls on the futures market," he added.

Cargo surveyor SGS said Malaysian palm oil exports for April 1-15 stood at480,769 tonnes, down from 514,637 tonnes for March 1-15.

Despite the decline in exports, some traders said the SGS data showedrenewed buying interest from consumers at Red Sea Ports.

Egypt, for example, purchased 16,350 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia inApril 1-15.

It was absent from the Malaysian market during the first 10 days of April,according to the surveyor.

"The SGS data tells us the Middle East and North African countries havepurchased 44,330 tonnes of palm oil in April 1-15. I believe their totalimports could reach 100,000 tonnes this month," said one trader.

In physical trade of crude palm oil (CPO), the April contract was offeredat 1,465 ringgit a tonne against bids of 1,460 ringgit for southernregion.