By Luzi Ann Javier April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans rose for a second day in Chicago on speculation that stricter Chinese quality controls on soybean oil imported from Argentina may prompt increased purchases of U.S. supplies. Soybeans for May delivery gained 0.2 percent to $9.4675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 11:48 a.m. Paris time. Chinese soybean-oil traders may “gradually” delay or cancel imports from Argentina after the government toughened inspections, the China National Grain and Oils Information Center said in a daily report e-mailed today. Imports in 2009-10 may halve from a year ago to between 1.2 million and 1.4 million metric tons because of the measure, it said. “There certainly is that possibility” that China buyers may turn to U.S. soybeans, Timothy Loh, marketing director at the American Soybean Association’s Southeast Asia office in Singapore, said by phone today. Processors may buy U.S. beans and crush them locally to make up for smaller soybean-oil supplies from Argentina, Loh said. Diplomatic negotiations may yet allow Argentina to keep its share of the Chinese import market, Loh said. Argentina is “optimistic” talks will end a blockade by China on soybean-oil imports that may cost the South American country as much as $2 billion, Miguel Calvo, vice president of the Argentine Soybean Chain Association, said yesterday. Corn, Wheat May-delivery corn rose 0.4 percent to $3.4775 a bushel, and wheat for July delivery dropped 0.9 percent to $4.73 a bushel. Milling wheat for May delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris fell 0.2 percent to 126 euros ($168.67) a ton, while November- delivery grain was unchanged at 130.75 euros. Rough rice for May delivery gained 1.3 percent to $13.145 per 100 pounds in Chicago. Production in Thailand and Vietnam, the two largest exporters, may be hurt by drier-than-normal weather that’s parched farms and cut water levels in the Mekong River, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The Thai harvest that begins this month, which accounts for about 25 percent of annual output, may drop to 7 million tons from 8.4 million last year, said Concepcion Calpe, a senior economist at the UN agency. Output from Vietnam’s end-of-year harvest “may be affected,” Calpe said in a phone interview from Rome yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net

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