Demand for the tropical oil will grow faster than output this year as El Nino curbs supply and Asian consumption gains, Nagaraj Meda, managing director at TransGraph Consulting Pvt, said in an interview yesterday. Global demand will rise 6.2 percent to 46.8 million metric tons in the year to Sept 30, while production will increase 5.9 per cent to 47.4 million tons, he said in Kuala Lumpur.

The May-delivery contract gained as much as 1.5 per cent to RM2,689 (US$807) a ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange and traded at RM2,665 at 11:20 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur. The most-active contract fell 2.2 per cent to a six-week low of RM2,650 yesterday.