KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23: Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose on Friday on mounting fears that production in December may be lower than earlier expected following heavy rains in the northern and eastern regions of the country.

The benchmark third-month contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, March, ended up 4 ringgit at 1,415 ringgit ($374.4) a ton after trading as high as 1,424.

February rose 6 ringgit to 1,412 and April was up 4 ringgit at 1,418.

The market is inching up due to flooding in the northern states and the east coast, said one trader. Earlier we were expecting production in December to be down by a single digit number. Now we think it could be down by more than 15 per cent.

Production woes have more than offset news that Indonesia is planning to cut export taxes on crude palm oil and last week’s data showing end-November stocks of the commodity at a record 1.6 million tons.

Overall volumes were 6,348 lots of 25 tons each.—Reuters