KUALA LUMPUR, March 13: Malaysian crude palm oil futures were firmer at the close on Wednesday due to hopes of better demand from main buyers India, Pakistan and China in March, traders said.

The benchmark third-month May futures ended 10 ringgit higher at 1,165 ringgit ($306.58) a ton after trading as low as 1,147 ringgit. Volume was heavy at 2,153 lots.

Some traders expected Malaysia’s palm oil exports to reach one million tons in March, up from 733,101 tons in February.

Talk circulated in the market that vessels booking for shipments to India, Pakistan and China would improve this month. Indian buyers, in particular, returned to Malaysia to buy palm oil although New Delhi kept edible oils import duties unchanged in the budget for the financial year starting April 1.

Indian buyers had expected their government to cut the import duties for crude edible oils and refined oils, which currently stand at 75 and 85 per cent respectively, when it announced the budget in February.

India purchased 112,740 tons of palm oil in February from Malaysia, the world’s largest producer. Traders said a failure in cotton seed crop in Pakistan may boost imports to around 100,000-120,000 tons of Malaysian palm oil in March, up from 76,250 tons in February.

More vessels will also head for China, which is expected to release licenses for local importers to buy palm oil later this month. Some traders said at least 100,000 tons of palm oil and Malaysia and Indonesia, the second largest producer, are already sitting in Hong Kong.

China’s State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) is likely to announce the list of qualified applicants for this year’s farm import quotas by the end of March.

China has announced that it will raise its import quota of palm oil to 2.4 million tons this year from 1.4 million tons last year.—Reuters