KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed higher on Thursday, fuelled by a recovery in the prices of crude oil, dealers said.

The benchmark third-month December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange ended up 10 ringgit at 1,550 ringgit ($421) a ton after trading in a range of 1,544 and 1,558 ringgit.

Other traded contracts were up between two and 10 ringgit. Overall volume stood at 12,044 lots of 25 tonnes each.

Vegetable oils like palm and soyaoil are increasingly tracking crude oil prices because of the rapidly expanding global bio fuel industry.

Traders said the market awaits September palm oil exports data to be announced by cargo surveyors at the weekend.

Exports of Malaysian oil palm products for September 1-25 stood at 1,097,233 tons, down 1.5 per cent from 1,113,624 tons shipped between August 1 and 25, cargo surveyor Societe General de Surveillance said.

According to another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services, the exports during the first 25 days of September stood at 1,115,370 tons, steady from 1,119,785 tons shipped between August 1 and 25.

In the physical crude palm oil market, September shipments were quoted at 1,515/1,525 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 1,515 and 1,520 ringgit a ton.—Reuters