MALAYSIA SEES STEADY PALM OIL PRICES

KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Reuters) - Malaysia, the world's largest palm oilproducer, expects prices of the commodity to hold steady this year on theback of ample global supplies, the central bank said on Wednesday."Palm oil prices are not expected to change significantly from currentlevels, given that global supplies of vegetable oils are projected toremain ample," Bank Negara said in its annual report.Bank Negara gave no further details.Malaysia is struggling to ease domestic stocks, which reached a recordhigh of 1.52 million tonnes last November, due to poor exports and fiercecompetition from the world's second largest producer and arch rivalIndonesia.Malaysia produced 10.84 million tonnes of palm oil in 2000, up from10.55 tonnes in 1999. Exports slightly increased to 9.06 million tonnes in2000 from 8.91 million tonnes on the prevoius year.By midday on Wednesday, the benchmark third-month June crude palm oilfutures were up 14 ringgit at 878 ringgit ($231.05) a tonne.($1 = 3.8 ringgit)