By Luzi Ann Javier Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat declined for a fourth straight day on concern global stockpiles will rise through the next season as demand lags behind production. Stockpiles may approach 200 million metric tons at the end of the 2010-2011 season, U.K. grains trader Gleadell Agriculture Ltd. forecast yesterday. That compares with an inventory of 191 million tons this season, estimated by the International Grains Council last month. “Most of the global crops, with Australia excluded, have increased over the last couple of months,” Michael Pitts, director for commodity sales at National Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney said by phone today. “There’s quite a concern” about rising global stockpiles, he said. Wheat for March delivery lost as much as 1 percent to $5.66 a bushel in after-hours electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, extending yesterday’s 0.8 percent decline. The most- active contract traded at $5.675 a bushel at 1:19 p.m. Singapore time, set for a 0.4 percent weekly decline, the second straight drop. Corn for March delivery lost as much as 0.6 percent to $3.985, after declining 1.4 percent yesterday. The most-active contract traded at $3.99 a bushel, headed for a 3.5 percent weekly decline, the first since the end of October. Corn and soybean production in Brazil will increase next year as they benefit from rainfall in the Center-West region, Airton Camargo, the head of agribusiness data at the Agriculture Ministry’s crop-forecasting agency, said in an interview yesterday. Brazil is the world’s largest soybean and corn exporter, after the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Crop Planting “We still see improvement in U.S. corn and South American plantings,” National Australia’s Pitts said. “There’s potential again for a build-up in stocks, which can damp prices.” Soybeans for January delivery declined as much as 0.9 percent to $10.38 a bushel in Chicago, after ending 1.3 percent higher yesterday. The contract traded at $10.4225 a bushel at 1:35 p.m. Singapore time, set for a 1 percent decline this week, the first such drop in a month. December imports of soybeans by China, the world’s biggest buyer, may exceed June’s record of 4.71 million tons as shipments delayed from November arrive this month, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center said in an e-mailed statement today. “Near term, prices will be buoyed by the news that Chinese imports in the quarter will be higher than expected,” Luke Mathews, commodity analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney said by phone today. “The interesting point that we’ve been looking at in the new year is whether the South American crop will displace significantly those U.S. exports.” After February, harvests in South America will replenish global soybean stocks, Thomas Mielke, executive director of Oil World, a global oilseed information provider, said in Bali yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net

Source