KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4: Malaysian crude palm oil futures jumped 3.7 per cent on Monday to stand just a whisker from all-time highs following the rival US soyaoil market’s rally to record peaks last week.

But Malaysian palm oil prices have not heeded Indonesian plans to impose a 20-25 per cent export tax on edible oil if international prices hit $1,200 and $1,300 as traders say the market has not reached those levels.

The benchmark April contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose as much as 121 ringgit to 3,353 ringgit ($1,039) a ton, which is just 2 per cent off the record high of 3,420 ringgit.

The contract settled up 113 ringgit at 3,345 ringgit. Other traded months rose between 70 and 118 ringgit while overall trade stood at 9,762 lots of 25 tons each.

The market is rising fast but it’s not because of Indonesian tax plans for CPO because those price levels have not been reached and besides, these announcements on export taxes are routine, a trader with a local brokerage said.

Only soyoil’s record high last week is fuelling the fire here and nothing else. US soyaoil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rallied to an all-time high of over 56 cents a lb, brushing off the negative input from a drop in crude oil prices and focusing on strong export weekly sales tally.

The palm oil market takes cues from soyaoil price movements as both vegetable oils are used in products ranging from shampoo and ice-cream to biodiesel.

Indonesia plans to impose a 20 or 25 per cent export tax on crude palm oil and its by-products if international prices hit $1,200 and $1,300 a ton, a deputy minister at the chief economics ministry said on Monday.

The move is part of new government measures unveiled on Friday to contain rising prices of staples, targeting palm oil-based cooking oil, wheat flour, rice and soyabeans.

Perhaps in the future there will be an impact on the upside when palm oil prices hit these levels as there will be a tightness in supply but for the moment, lets not jump the gun, said another trader with a foreign brokerage.

Traders said the market was more concerned with export

trends with expectations that palm oil shipments will rise after the Chinese New Year holidays as China will have to replenish a significant stock draw in edible oils.

Exports might be slow now but buying nations are delaying purchases till the price goes low,” said a local palm oil broker who sells to China.

And Malaysia’s January palm oil stocks are likely to rise 8.2 per cent to 1.82 million tons, the highest in at least 25 years as exports fall sharply on record high prices, a Reuters poll showed last week.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for February shipment in the southern region was quoted at 3,345/3,350 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 3,320 and 3,350 ringgit.—Reuters