PREVIEW-Malaysia's palm oil stocks likely rose for first time in six months in March

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Reuters) - Malaysia's palm oil stocks likely rose for the first time in six months in March as production recovered, a Reuters survey showed on Friday, although global demand remains sluggish amid economic worries after U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff announcement.

Palm oil inventories are expected to have increased to 1.56 million metric tons last month, up 3% from February, according to a median estimate of nine traders, planters, and analysts polled by Reuters. MYPOMS-TPO

Crude palm oil output likely jumped 10.3% from the previous month to 1.31 million tons, after six consecutive months of declines. MYPOMP-CPOTT

Malaysian palm oil inventories might have rebounded slightly in March due to a strong expected double-digit recovery in production, said Anilkumar Bagani, commodity research head at Mumbai-based vegetable oils brokerage Sunvin Group.

Exports of palm oil products were likely up 2% to 1.02 million tons, after four straight monthly drops, the survey showed. MYPOME-PO

Bagani said exports have shown minimal growth amid consistently weak demand from top buyers India, China and the European Union.

"Now Trump's (imposition of) tariffs (earlier this week) is further deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, which if it does not get normalised quickly, could further hurt the demand for palm oil," he added.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is scheduled to release its monthly data on April 10.

Breakdown of March estimates (in metric tons):

Official stocks of 1,512,100 tons in February plus the above estimated output and imports yield a total March supply of 2,892,100 tons. Based on the median of exports and closing stocks estimate, Malaysia's domestic consumption in March is estimated to be 312,637 tons.