07 March 2002 (BusinessTimes) - MALAYSIA’S crude palm oil (CPO) prices areexpected to rally in tandem with the outcome of a major seminar on thecommodity’s price outlook today.Traders said the market currently relies on market-moving news to bepresented by industry experts before players can initiate their positions.“There is a general consensus that CPO prices may react favourably to ahost of good news from the seminar and may reach the RM1,200 a tonne levelnext week,” a trader told Business Times yesterday in Kuala Lumpur.The Malaysia Derivatives Exchange (MDEX) will hold the annual palm andlauric oils conference and exhibition on CPO price outlook 2002/2003 inSeri Kembangan, Selangor, today.The two-day event, which will be officiated by Primary Industries MinisterDatuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, is being attended by local and foreignindustry experts.“There is a general consensus that the world is focusing only on soyabeanand palm oil at the moment due to the tightening supply of their competing15 edible oils,” said the trader.Other edible oils and fats include coconut, cottonseed, rapeseed, corn,tallow and linseed.The trader said that any positive forecast on CPO by experts during theseminar may boost the commodity’s prices, at least until July whenrapeseed and sunflower oil are due for harvest.“Projections of a drop in CPO production by year-end, the possibility of arecurrence of El Nino and China’s pledge to buy 2.4 million tonnes of thecommodity are enough to excite the market,” he said.The trader added that global rapeseed production for the 2001/2002 seasonwill see a decline of 1.37 per cent to 13.67 million tonnes from 13.86million tonnes in 2000/2001.“Global sunflower production is also expected to decline by 13.8 per centto 7.5 million tonnes during the 2001/2002 season against 8.7 milliontonnes in 2000/2001,” he said.“At best, CPO prices can continue to remain rangebound between RM1,150 andRM1,180 a tonne, at least for the whole of next week after the seminarends,” he said.Meanwhile at MDEX, CPO futures contracts ended higher with the benchmarkthird-month May delivery closing RM1 higher at RM1,166 a tonne.March, April and June deliveries gained RM3, RM8 and RM2 to close atRM1,153, RM1,159 and RM1,175 a tonne respectively.Open interests gained 260 contracts to close at 9,367 contracts, whilevolume gained 646 lots to close at 2,098 lots.