JAKARTA (April 11 2003) : Indonesia's palm oil stocks are at a criticallevel due to higher usage and healthy demand from India and China, traderssaid on Thursday.

Several palm oil traders estimated end-March stocks stood at 450,000tonnes while demand from India pushed exports for April up to 650,000tonnes. End-April stocks were estimated at 430,000 tonnes.

"The current stocks are a bit tight because of high exports, mainly toIndia," said one trader in Medan, the capital of the main growing area ofNorth Sumatra.

Some 55 percent of Indonesian palm oil exports went to India last year.

Export figures stood at 620,000 tonnes in March with India as the mainbuyer, against 450,000 tonnes in February.

Some regional traders said palm oil exports in April would likely bevirtually unchanged from March levels.

"I think the same exports number will be maintained in April as wellbecause Indonesia is very well committed to export that much, which isalready sold," another trader told Reuters from Singapore.

Demand from China was also expected to increase due to summer monthsahead.

"Looks like demand from India is going to be stronger and increasingdemand is also coming from China," the Singapore trader said.

However, traders expressed concerns over the critical stocks as the usagenumber was higher than the available supplies.

"It's true that Indonesia is producing during the month but that's besidethe point. What if there's something wrong with the production?" said theSingapore trader.

The state marketing centre, which sells crude palm oil (CPO) produced bystate plantations, sold all 3,500 tonnes on offer in its biweekly tenderon Thursday.

It fetched a top price of 3,677 rupiah per kg.

Indonesian CPO was quoted at $422.5 a tonne cost, insurance and freight(CPO) basis in Rotterdam on Thursday, compared to $430 a tonne onTuesday.-Reuters