The Malaysian Royal Customs Department has raised the export duty rate on CPO to 6% from 5.5%, effective October 1, in an announcement late Friday on the Malaysian Palm Oil Board website.
The average Malaysian CPO price for October was announced at MR2,754.18/mt ($657.59/mt) by the Customs department, which falls into the 6% export duty bracket.
The September average CPO price was set at MR2,677.91/mt by the Customs Department.
CPO prices in the last month have been very strong, breaching the MR2,900/mt level on September 13, in what one trader described as a "textbook bull market".
Malaysian market players had been unprepared for such strong CPO prices on the Bursa Malaysia exchange in August and September, especially, when there had been an expectation of lower prices in late 2017 owing to a bounce in production following an El Nino year in 2016.
Market sources have talked of lower-than-expected production increases and a lack of CPO supply and inventories at refineries in Malaysia.
