Corn, little changed, may gain before a U.S. Department of Agriculture report that may show tighter global supplies amid stronger demand for the nation’s grain from ethanol producers. March-delivery corn traded at $5.745 a bushel by 2:08 p.m. Singapore time after gaining as much as 0.3 percent on the Chicago Board of Trade. The most-active contract has climbed 0.2 percent this week, heading for a third weekly advance. U.S. ethanol production jumped 6.1 percent last week to a record 939,000 barrels a day, while stockpiles of the gasoline additive sank 4.2 percent to 16.4 million barrels, the steepest decline since Aug. 20, the Energy Department said Dec. 8. Investors are expecting the USDA’s latest forecast on supply and demand, to be released later today in Washington, will reflect higher ethanol use for U.S. corn. “The question is, could supply be much tighter?,” Peter Rizzo, managing director at FCStone Australia Pty., said by phone today. Ethanol producers will use 4.8 billion bushels of this season’s corn harvest in the U.S., the largest grower and exporter, the USDA said last month, raising its forecast from 4.7 billion bushels a month earlier. That will help shrink country’s corn stockpiles to 827 million bushels, the smallest since the 1995-1996 season, the agency said last month. Global corn stockpiles may fall to 128.71 million tons before the 2011 harvest, according to the average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That’s smaller than the USDA forecast of 129.16 million tons last month. Inventories Declining Soybean inventories around the world may be 60.59 million tons, smaller than the 61.4 million tons estimated by the agency last month, according to the survey. Wheat stockpiles may be 171.3 million tons, compared with the USDA’s 172.5 million ton estimate last month. “Everything from wheat to beans to corn, the whole complex to me looks tighter, not just because of demand,” Rizzo said. “The supply dynamics is a challenge.” January-delivery soybeans increased as much as 0.4 percent to $12.865 a bushel in Chicago before trading at $12.8475, heading for a 1.2 percent decline this week. China’s soybean imports increased to 5.48 million tons in November, the first advance in five months, on strong demand in the largest user. Shipments jumped 47 percent from 3.73 million tons in October, the lowest level in eight months, according to Bloomberg News calculations based on data posted on the website of the General Administration of Customs. Purchases in the first 11 months rose 31 percent to 49.37 million tons, it said. Wheat for March delivery lost 0.5 percent to $7.845 a bushel in Chicago, poised for a 0.7 percent gain this week. Rainfall over the past three days in eastern Australia may have increased feed wheat volumes in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to as much as 12 million tons, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said today. That would represent 60 percent of wheat production in the three states, it said. To contact the reporters on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net; Jae Hur in Tokyo at jhur1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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