Oct 24 (Reuters) -Spot basis bids for soybeans shipped by barge to U.S. Gulf Coast terminals and loaded for export surged on Thursday on strong demand and rising freight rates, traders said.

* Low water on the lower Mississippi River is also restricting grain flows to the Gulf as shippers are limiting the amount of grain per barge and the number of barges per tow.

* Spot barge freight rates edged slightly higher at St. Louis but jumped by 125 percentage points of tariff on the Illinois River on Thursday, barge brokers said. BG/US

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported net U.S. soybean sales at 2.15 million metric tons in the week ended Oct. 17, an eight-week high. In addition, the USDA said undisclosed buyers have booked another 198,000 tons in the last 24 hours, the sixth daily soybean sales announcement in eight days. EXP/SOY

* CIF October soybean barges bids jumped 15 cents to 145 cents over Chicago Board of Trade November SX24 futures.

* Gulf export premiums for nearby shipping slots rose on limited loading capacity.

* FOB premiums at the Gulf jumped to 155 cents over futures for shipment in the first half of November and 150 cents over futures for last half shipment. Both were up from full-November offers in the mid-130s earlier this week.

* CIF corn basis bids were firm on higher barge freight and strong demand.

* The USDA reported nearly 4.2 million metric tons in U.S. corn export sales last week, the strongest weekly sales since May 2021. Additionally, the agency confirmed another 392,600 tons in daily sales on Thursday to Japan and undisclosed buyers.

* CIF October corn barges were bid 2 cents higher at 97 cents over CBOT December corn CZ24 futures.

* FOB Gulf offers for November and December corn shipments were up 5 cents at 125 cents over futures.

Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi

For displays of CIF basis, click on the codes in brackets: U.S. CIF Gulf soybeans GRYM U.S. CIF Gulf corn GRYN U.S. CIF Gulf SRW wheat GRYO U.S. CIF Gulf HRW wheat GRYP
For displays of FOB basis, please click on the following codes in brackets: U.S. FOB Gulf corn GRZC U.S. FOB Gulf soybeans GRZD U.S. FOB Gulf SRW wheat GRZE U.S. FOB Gulf HRW wheat GRZF LINKS Corn prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=corn-cash-market
Wheat prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=wheat-cash-market
U.S. barge freight BG/US
U.S. export sales estimates USDA/EST
U.S. grain export summary GRA/U
Brazil soybean export prices SYBS
Brazil corn export prices SYBX
Argentina grain prices GRA/ARG
Russia grain prices GRA/RU