By Luzi Ann Javier May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans rose, trimming the biggest weekly decline in almost four months, on speculation Chinese imports may lift demand for U.S. crops amid concern Europe’s debt crisis will halt the global economic revovery. Soybeans for July delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $9.595 a bushel, reversing an earlier decline of as much as 0.6 percent. The contract traded at $9.5625 a bushel at 10:25 a.m. in London and is set for a 4.3 percent weekly loss, the biggest for the most-active contract since January. China’s Heilongjiang province will reduce soybean planting this year and increase corn and rice sowing, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center said in an e-mailed statement today. Heilongjiang is the biggest soybean growing province in the world’s largest importer of the oilseed. The market will be “looking at how that will affect the underlying fundamentals,” said Toby Hassall, a research analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty in Sydney. “If we see lower than previously expected production, that could be perceived as having a positive impact on China’s import demand.” Soybean planting in Heilongjiang may be delayed by more than 10 days because of bad weather, the state-owned market information provider said. The delay and decline in China’s planting may pare the volume and quality of soybeans, supporting prices, the center said. Still, concern that Europe’s debt crisis may slow the region’s recovery, cooling demand for food and fuel including biodiesel, may push prices lower, Hassall said. U.S. Rout U.S. stocks yesterday tumbled the most in a year, briefly erasing $1 trillion in market value, and the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities slumped to a three-month low on concern Europe’s debt crisis will spread. “The European debt crisis has rattled investor confidence in a lot of markets,” Hassall said. “Grains have been fairly resilient to the deterioration in the market sentiment in recent sessions earlier this week. But it’s very hard to ignore.” July-delivery corn fell as much as 0.9 percent to $3.6775 a bushel. It last traded at $3.685 a bushel, taking the weekly loss to 1.8 percent. Speculation about China becoming a “significant” net buyer of corn this year helped shield the commodity from an investor sell-off earlier this week, Hassall said. China, the world’s second-largest corn consumer, may buy as much as 500,000 tons this year after drought damaged its crop, said Jay O’Neil, an agricultural economist at the International Grains Program at Kansas State University said April 29. Net Importer The last time China was a net importer of corn was 14 years ago, when drought reduced crops a year earlier. Purchases in the marketing year ended Sept. 30, 1996, were 1.476 million tons, down from 4.287 million a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. O’Neil’s import estimate for China is five times the April forecast by U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. exporters sold 115,000 tons of corn to China for delivery in the marketing year that ends Aug. 31, the USDA said on April 28, days after releasing its 100,000-ton import forecast for the Asian buyer. “We’ve already seen the Chinese book some orders from the U.S.,” Hassall said. “That’s been a supportive factor and has offered some spill-over support” to soybeans and wheat, he said. Wheat for July delivery fell 0.9 percent to $5.035 a bushel, trimming the weekly gain to 0.1 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net

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