KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's non-oil primary commodities -- crude palm oil (CPO), rubber and tin -- are in for a good 2007, riding high on continuous global market demand, analysts say.

They said the demand for these commodities is expected to be bullish, enabling prices to be on the uptrend.

One of the analysts said among the three commodities, CPO has the brightest outlook as demand for biodiesel is increasing, particularly in Europe where the use of biodiesel is mandatory for industry players.

Between 1.4 million tonnes and 1.5 million tonnes of CPO are expected to be used for biodiesel by the end of next year, the analyst from OSK Research told Bernama in an interview recently.

He also said that food industries in China and the United States are also expected to increase their demand next year.

"Besides that, the shortage of other vegetable oils is also increasing the demand for CPO," he added.

According to the analyst, CPO prices are in the early phase of a cyclical upturn driven by favourable demand-supply dynamics and that there is a potential upside to the CPO price forecasts.

He said the bullish trend is expected to push CPO prices to a high of RM2,100 per tonne.

Currently, prices are moving between RM1,800 per tonne and RM1,900 per tonne.

In the case of rubber, prices for the commodity, which have been receiving good demand from tyre manufacturers, are likely to rise.

An analyst said the demand for natural rubber was increasing, mainly from the automotive sectors in China and India.

"The sectors in these two countries are growing and the industry players there will require more rubber for their products," she said.

This year saw SMR 20 grade (Standard Malaysia Rubber) reaching as low as 533.00 sen per kg and as high as 895.50 sen per kg while latex in bulk touched a low of 358.00 sen per kg and high of 684.50 sen per kg.

As for tin, the price is expected to remain strong over the next 12 months based on the current supply and demand in the industry, dealers said.

According to them, the price in the local market should be above US$11,000 per tonne due to high demand, mainly from Japan.

"The expected strong price should benefit tin companies involved in the upstream to midstream activities such as tin mining and tin smelting," one of the dealers said.

The dealers also said that the World Commodity Forecast estimated consumption of tin to reach 386,000 tonnes next year and 398,100 tonnes in 2008.