Corn climbed, heading for a fourth weekly advance, the longest winning streak since Sept. 24, on speculation that demand will increase on rising ethanol use in the U.S. and stronger Chinese imports. The March-delivery contract gained 0.2 percent to $5.8875 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:02 p.m. in Tokyo. The price reached $5.945 a bushel on Dec. 15, the highest level since Nov. 9. The contract has risen 2.5 percent this week. “Corn would be supported by demand for ethanol in the U.S. and expectations of increasing imports by China,” Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at research company JSC Corp. in Tokyo. China’s demand was also supportive for soybeans, he said. China is the world’s biggest soybean importer. The U.S. Senate’s passage of an $858 billion tax-cut plan included incentives to buoy demand for fuel made from crops, according to Aaron Huebner, a broker at Country Hedging Inc. in Indianapolis. U.S. House plans to vote on the bill were delayed yesterday by a procedural dispute on the rules for debate. U.S. ethanol makers may use as much as 5.1 billion bushels of corn to produce the grain-based gasoline additive in 2010-2011, eroding inventories, Rabobank said yesterday in a report. U.S. ethanol output last week was little changed at 937,000 barrels a day, the government said Dec. 15, close to the record 939,000 barrels the previous week. Production of conventional gasoline blended with ethanol was little changed at 4.97 million barrels. Refiners receive a tax credit of 45 cents for every gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline. Record Forecast China may boost corn imports to a record next year, according to the U.S. Grains Council. Purchases may grow from 1.5 million metric tons this year “to upward of” 7.4 million tons in 2011, Thomas Dorr, president of the industry group, said Dec. 15. The group in July forecast imports of 5.8 million tons. March-delivery soybeans rose as much as 0.7 percent to $13.0925 a bushel and last traded at $13.08. On Dec. 15, the price reached $13.2475, the highest price since Nov. 12. The contract has climbed 2.8 percent this week. Soybean imports by China may total 54 million tons in the 2010-2011 marketing year, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center said in e-mailed report today. Soybean-oil imports may total 2 million tons, it said. Wheat rallied, trimming this week’s losses, on speculation that a drop to the lowest level in two weeks may boost demand. March-delivery wheat advanced as much as 1 percent to $7.575 a bushel and last traded at $7.53. The price touched $7.46 yesterday, the lowest level since Dec. 2. The contract has lost 2.9 percent this week, dropping for a second week. “It’s a kneejerk reaction” after yesterday’s 2 percent drop, JSC’s Shigemoto said. Australia’s harvest of winter crops including wheat, barley and canola is running four to six weeks behind normal as continuing rain raised the risk of cuts to output forecasts, Rabobank said in an e-mailed report today. Production is forecast at 22.7 million tons this season and may rise to 25.2 million tons next year because of soil moisture stored during a wet spring, and amid a favorable weather outlook from the Bureau of Meteorology, Rabobank said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Tokyo at jhur1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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