OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2015. Malaysian palm oil futures closed higher on Monday as buyers were encouraged by the country's announcement it would not reinstate an export tax on palm for March, and on the release of better-than-expected export figures.

"I think one of the reasons the market is friendly is the fact that crude palm oil exports will still have zero tax in March. Earlier, there was an indication that there would be a tax for crude palm oil," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm grower, has kept its palm oil export tax at zero for March, a government circular showed on Monday, extending its duty-free policy since October.

Last week, the Malaysian industries minister said the country was planning to resume taxing exports from next month.

By Monday's close, the benchmark April contract had climbed 1.09 percent to 2,312 ringgit (\\$647) per tonne. Total traded volume stood at 42,064 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the usual 35,000 lots.

The release of figures that showed a previous drop in exports had lessened also provided support.

"The export figures are better than the previous ones. The first ten days, export figures dropped by 16 percent, now it's only down 5 percent," another trader based in Kuala Lumpur said.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Feb. 1-15 fell 4.9 percent to 508,955 tonnes from the same period in January, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.

Another surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed shipments dropped 6.3 percent.

Technicals showed palm oil looks neutral in a range of 2,261-2,357 ringgit per tonne, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

In competing markets, the most active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange gained 0.51 percent.

In other markets, oil steadied around \\$61 a barrel on Monday, holding gains from last week, after Kuwait's oil minister said lower supply levels would support prices in the second half of the year.