22/01/2011 (Business Recorder), Jakarta - Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a near two-week high on Friday, as traders cited strong export data amid concern that supplies will struggle to keep pace with robust demand. The market was on course to post its first weekly gain for the year as traders shifted their focus to bullish fundamentals after booking profits from January 5 onwards due to the stronger US dollar, some concerns of demand slowing and a technical correction.

The benchmark April 2011 crude palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives rose 0.5 percent to 3,748 ringgit a tonne at the close. It earlier peaked at 3,797 ringgit, the highest level since January 10. Overall, traded volume stood at 11,930 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared with a total of 13,739 lots on Wednesday. Malaysian markets were closed on Thursday. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for January 1-20 rose 0.1 percent to 799,846 tonnes from 799,071 tonnes shipped during December 1-20, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Friday.

This followed data on Thursday that showed exports of Malaysian palm oil products for January 1-20 rose 9.74 percent to 852,607 tonnes from 776,910 tonnes shipped during December 1-20. "Pretty positive," said one trader. "The export numbers came out nice - good numbers. 800,000 tonnes would mean 1.2 or 1.25 million tonnes exports in the month - higher than people were expecting."

On January 4, prices touched 3,905 ringgit, a peak not seen since March 2008 on worries that seasonally heavy rains have stalled harvesting in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia. Comparative vegetable oil supplies are a focus for many investors, as dry weather has hit major soyaoil exporter Argentina at the same time that heavy rains in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The most-active September 2011 soyaoil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose to 10,558 yuan versus an open at 10,488 yuan. In Indonesia, sources said the world's top palm oil producer may increase palm oil export tax for February to 25 percent from 20 percent in January. Market talk that Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer, would lift the export tax to a maximum level of 25 percent in February, has swirled in the industry for weeks.