International Grains Council cut its forecast for global corn stocks to a four-year low, despite lifting its production forecast, citing a larger estimate for industrial use in China, as the country sets off on ethanol industry expansion. The council lowered by 5m tonnes to 203m tonnes its forecast for world corn inventories as of the close of 2017-18, taking the figure to the lowest since the end of 2013-14, and representing a drop of 32 MMT year on year. The downgrade came even as the forecast for world corn production this season was raised by 5m tonnes to 1.034bn tonnes – a harvest second only to last season’s 1.079 billion tonne crop.