KUALA LUMPUR, April 10: Malaysian crude palm oil futures jumped 3.9 per cent on Thursday as palm oil stocks eased from record levels, and a possible continuation of the Argentine soy farmers strike rekindled ideas of a vegoil supply squeeze.

The market appeared to ignore an unexpected slowdown in Malaysian palm oil export shipments for the first 10 days of April and Indonesian port workers’ decision not to strike.

The benchmark June contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 130 ringgit to 3,455 ringgit ($1,097) per ton, gaining more than 13 percent so far this year.

The record stock levels of palm oil are getting eroded slowly and prices have responded favourably, said a trader with a local brokerage.

However, exports of Malaysian palm oil from April 1 to 10 fell 41 per cent to 304,279 tons from 516,499 tons in March 1-10, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Thursday.

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance reported declines of 34.2 percent to 346,808 tons in the same period. There has been lack of buying in early April as China was busy selling its reserves and India was in the middle of crushing its domestic rapeseed crop, traders and analysts said.

Historically, crude palm oil prices are always lower in the second quarter as production posts modest increases and demand has not quite kicked in yet, said Fordyanto Widjaja, a Singapore-based analyst with Morgan Stanley.

He added: Demand might start coming in full force by end-April or early May when China and India have to look overseas to restock their vegetable oil reserves.

Meanwhile, fears of a freeze in Indonesian palm oil shipments were soothed as port workers called off a threatened strike over a bill passed by parliament this week ending a monopoly held by a state firm to operate the country’s ports, a union official said on Thursday.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for April shipment in the southern region was quoted at 3,420/3,430 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 3,400 and 3,425 ringgit.—Reuters