Soybeans may rally on Chinese demand

Soybean prices may gain 20 percent by March as economic growth in China, the world's largest importer, boosts demand for animal feed and cooking oil, a US exporter group said.

The oilseed may surpass the nine-month high of $12.365 a bushel reached June 5 in Chicago before new supplies from Brazil and Argentina, the largest exporters after the US, become available, said Danny Murphy, treasurer of the US Soybean Export Council.

Soybeans climbed to a three-month high on Wednesday and have gained 4.6 percent this year as imports by China are set to reach a record. The nation's demand for the oilseed protein meal may expand 27 percent in the next decade as rising meat consumption boosts demand for stock feed, according to HighQuest Partners, a consulting company based in St Louis, Missouri.