Soybeans rose in Chicago on speculation that China, the world’s biggest importer, may increase purchases to help cool domestic food prices and on a reduced estimate for U.S. stockpiles. China’s imports may climb 39 percent from a month earlier to 5.2 million metric tons in November, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center said in a report today. U.S. inventories before next year’s harvest will total 5 million tons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report on Nov. 9. That’s down 30 percent from an October forecast. “China’s soybean import demand continues at a robust pace,” said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. The USDA report “reflected further tightening in grains balances and thinner inventory levels,” she said. Soybeans for January delivery added 5.25 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $13.2475 a bushel at 1:14 p.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. The oilseed has climbed 26 percent this year on rising demand from China and reached a 26-month high of $13.4475 on Nov. 9. As of Oct. 28, exporters in the U.S., the world’s largest soybean grower and shipper, agreed to sell 17.6 million tons to China for shipment from Sept. 1, the USDA said. Food prices gained 10.1 percent in October, China’s statistics bureau said today. That was the biggest advance since August 2008, according to data tracked by Bloomberg. Inflation in China China may allow the yuan to appreciate by 5 percent in the next 12 months, lowering its import costs and slowing inflation by an estimated 0.3 percent, according to a Deutsche Bank AG report dated yesterday. Consumer prices rose a more-than- forecast 4.4 percent from a year earlier, the highest in two years, a statistics bureau report showed in Beijing today. Soybean output in Mato Grosso, Brazil’s biggest producing state, will remain at 18.8 million tons next year, the first time production will fail to grow since 2007, after dryness delayed planting and prompted farmers to favor cotton, Glauber Silveira Silva, head of the Mato Grosso Soybean Producers Association, said in an interview Nov. 9. The state grows 30 percent of the nation’s soybean crop. Brazil, forecast to supply 32 percent of global soybean exports, was estimated to harvest 67.5 million tons in the year that began Oct. 1, according to the USDA. The nation is the world’s second-largest grower and shipper. Many agricultural commodities including corn, soybeans and wheat are “still cheap” even after recent rallies, Michael Lewis, global head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank, said in an interview yesterday. Corn for March delivery gained 3.25 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $5.8425 a bushel and has increased 41 percent this year. December-delivery wheat added 2.25 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $7.1225 a bushel, bringing this year’s climb to 32 percent. Milling wheat for January delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris slipped 0.2 percent to 221.75 euros ($304.82) a ton. To contact the reporters on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net; Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net; Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter@bloomberg.net

Source