KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19: Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose 1.3 per cent to a new high on Tuesday as China hurried to lock in edible oil supplies after harsh winter weather damaged its oil-seed crops.

China’s buying spree saw US soyaoil soaring to fresh record highs in Asian trade while traders heavily bet that cargo surveyors will unveil very bullish palm oil export numbers for the first 20 days of February on Wednesday.

Already fuelled by Jakarta’s plans to hike palm oil export taxes once international prices go past $1,200 per ton and red-hot crude oil prices, palm oil has gained nearly 19 per cent so far this year.

The benchmark May contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 47 ringgit to a record 3,646 ringgit ($1,132) a ton. The contract then settled up 26 ringgit at 3,625 ringgit.

There are no limits to where palm oil can go...3,800 ringgit, even 4,000 ringgit, said a trader with a leading plantation firm.

Even at these price levels, palm oil is at a discount to soyoil and China is out to quickly replenish as cheaply as possible. Other traded months on Bursa Malaysia rose between 23 and 30 ringgit. Overall trade climbed to 17,127 lots of 25 tons each from the usual 10,000 lots.

Traders said China started buying in either late January or early February after the cold snap destroyed nearly 40 per cent of its planted rapeseed crop.

Palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil in the world, standing at an 18.4 per cent discount to soyaoil, which traded at around $1,391 per ton at Rotterdam port on Monday, traders said. Palm oil and soyaoil compete for exports and prices of these vegetable oils often move in tandem.

US soyaoil soared 2.2 per cent to a record high on Tuesday on Asian trade with the December contract standing at 61.65 cents per pound, following an extended rally in global oilseed and vegetable oil markets.

Traders said palm oil exports for Feb. 1-20 were expected to rise as much as 30 per cent to 750,000 tons. Cargo surveyors Intetek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance will unveil estimates on Wednesday.

Exports have usually been at their slowest in January and February but China’s early emergence in the market is going to push other countries to start buying before it becomes way too expensive, said a trader with a local brokerage.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products have surged in the first half of February by as much as 53 per cent to 603,389 tons, cargo surveyors reported.

Indonesia expects its crude palm oil output to rise to 19.80 million tons this year from 17.37 million tons in 2007 due to increasing plantation area and higher yields, a senior trade ministry official said on Tuesday.

But exports of palm oil products, including crude palm oil, may fall to 9.41 million tons this year from 10.44 million tons in 2007 due to rising domestic consumption, Diah Maulida, director general of foreign trade said at the ministry, told parliament.

There is going to be a supply squeeze in palm oil globally and this will push up prices further, said a trader with dealing in Indonesia.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for February shipment in the southern and central regions was quoted at 3,615/3,620 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 3,610 and 3,630 ringgit.—Reuters