KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed slightly lower on Tuesday with the market torn between reports of lower production and poor overseas demand.The benchmark third-month April contract on the

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange finished down 4 ringgit at 1,891 ringgit ($540) a ton.

The market is looking for a direction. The exports are giving us a poor picture, said one dealer.

But at the same time output is going to fall because of floods, which is a bullish factor. Other traded contracts were down between 6 and 16 ringgit except February, which was up 1 ringgit. Overall volume stood at 12,770 lots of 25 tons.

Dealers said market movements in coming days would depend on the weather and flooding in southern Johor state.

The market rose around one per cent on Monday, lifted by higher prices of rival soyaoil and continuing wet weather in the key palm-producing state of Johor that stoked concern over supplies.

Flooding has already cut Malaysian crude palm oil output by 26.3 per cent to 1.14 million tons in December from a month earlier, according to the state-run Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Jan. 1-20 fell 15.8 per cent to 564,823 tons from the 670,666 tons shipped between Dec. 1 and 20, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said exports during the period fell 7.7 per cent to 604,423 tons compared with the month-ago period.—Reuters