KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia's palm oil industry is expected to get a boost from China's likely squeeze in vegetable oil supply in the coming months, a report said Friday. Malaysian Palm Oil Association Chief Executive M.R. Chandran said Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's top producers and exporters of palm oil, would enjoy increased purchases after China's expected rapeseed harvest shortfall of between 500,000 tons (550,000 short tons) to 750,000 tons. "This will put pressure on the republic to increase its intake of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia in the next month or so," Chandran was quoted by the *****Business Times*****newspaper as saying. "Probably for this reason, China held back purchases earlier this year... it wanted to wait until rapeseed harvesting started, then decide on imports," he said, adding he was confident total exports to China would hit 1.6 million to 1.8 million tons this year. China, Malaysia's third biggest buyer last year at 1.28 million tons, has so far issued import licences for only 300,000 tons of palm oil, AFP reported. dealers said palm oil prices surged over the past month with the market remaining largely on an upward trend on speculation the republic was due to aggressively buy palm oil.