CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures climbed to a fresh 7-1/2 year high on Friday as confirmation of another massive sale of US corn to China raised concerns about tightening US and global supplies, traders said.

CBOT March corn settled up 12-1/2 cents at $5.47 a bushel after reaching $5.53-3/4, the highest price on a continuous chart of the most-active contract since June 2013.

For the month of January, the contract rose 63 cents a bushel or 13%, including a gain of 45-1/2 cents in the last week.

The US Department of Agriculture through its daily reporting system said private exporters sold 2.108 million tonnes of US old-crop corn to China.

The latest sale followed deals earlier this week that netted China a combined 3.74 million tonnes of US corn.