KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22: Malaysian crude palm oil futures were higher on Thursday as fears of a drop in local production more than offset news that Indonesia was planning to cut export taxes on the commodity.
The benchmark third-month contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, March, ended up 5 ringgit at 1,411 ringgit ($373.43) a ton.
February rose 6 ringgit to 1,406 and April was up 4 ringgit at 1,414.
Overall volume was 6,036 lots of 25 tons each.
Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said late on Wednesday that Jakarta planned to cut the export tax on crude palm oil to 1.5 per cent from 3.0 per cent, and adjust the export tax on derivative products of CPO by the end of this year.
The decision will be finalised by a finance minister’s decree, which was expected to be issued before the end of this year, he said.
On the spot market, Malaysian traders said trading volumes remained thin ahead of year-end holidays.—Reuters
