CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures closed higher on Thursday on increased export demand for US supplies from China, the world's biggest soya importer, traders said. CBOT August soyabeans settled up 7-1/4 cents at $8.93-1/2 per bushel and most-active November ended up 8-1/4 cents at $8.91. CBOT August soyameal ended up $1.20 at $287 per short ton and CBOT August soyaoil rose 0.47 cent to settle at 29.27 cents per pound.

The US Department of Agriculture through its daily reporting system confirmed sales of 522,000 tonnes of US soyabeans to China and another 351,000 tonnes to unknown destinations.

In its weekly export sales report, the USDA said soyabean export sales in the week ended July 9 totaled 1,080,600 tonnes (old-crop and new-crop years combined), in line with trade expectations for 700,000 to 1.850 million tonnes.

Forecasts called for welcome rains in the next 10 days in much of the US crop belt, but dry areas may persist in the southern Midwest, space technology company Maxar said in a daily weather note.

Consultancy StoneX projected that Brazil's soyabean planted area for 2020/21 would expand to ??over 38 million hectares, from 37 million in 2019/20, as demand for the oilseed remains strong.