Oct 11 (Reuters) -Basis bids for corn and soybeans shipped by barge to Gulf Coast export terminals rose on Friday on good demand and lower futures prices, traders said.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported private export sales of 577,928 metric tons of U.S. corn and 132,000 tons of soybeans, but the destination was not disclosed.

* Traders said Chinese importers have been in the market for U.S. soybeans for shipment in November and December. The world's top soy importer has also been booking new-crop Brazilian soybeans this week, traders said.

* Elevated barge freight rates continued to underpin CIF basis values. Some shipping disruptions this fall on the Mississippi River have kept freight costs up.

* The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging areas near St. Louis as the river is near historic lows. The work is closing the river to barge traffic at times. The river at Memphis is also a low-water choke point.

* CIF October soybean barges were bid 6 cents higher at about 91 cents over Chicago Board of Trade November soybean SX24 futures.

* FOB offers for November soybean shipments held at around 113 cents over futures and December offers were about 97 cents over January SF25 futures.

* CIF corn barges loaded in October were bid 2 cents higher at 70 cents over CBOT December CZ24 futures.

* FOB Gulf offers for November corn shipments stayed at about 114 cents over futures, while offers for December shipments were steady at about 112 cents over futures.

Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by Devika Syamnath

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