* Dalian iron ore futures fall to lowest in nearly 1 month
* Shanghai rebar also slips again in morning session
* CISA says exports to top 100 million tonnes this yr
BEIJING, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Chinese iron ore futures closed the early session on Wednesday at the lowest in nearly a month, with little to encourage traders to believe steel demand will improve in coming weeks.
Iron ore for January delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 was down 2.6 percent at 375 yuan ($58.74) a tonne at the midday break, after opening 3.1 percent lower.
Traders said that while steel demand remained weak - keeping pressure on raw material iron ore - some mills and sellers were reluctant to slash major product prices in order to stimulate sales, and were instead waiting for the market to improve.
"There are still some traders who are pessimistic and are eager to sell their products for cash, so prices are still falling slightly," said an analyst with online steel trading platform PRCSteel.
Wang Liqun, vice-chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), told reporters on Wednesday the situation had worsened for Chinese steel mills going into the third quarter, with sector losses in August amounting to more than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion). ID:nL4N11T19X
Wang said foreign markets remain a major lifeline, with China's total steel export volumes expected to exceed 100 million tonnes this year.
Overcapacity has eroded the prices of both iron ore and steel, but new capacity is still coming on line.
The chief executive of Roy Hill Holdings told reporters on Tuesday that their Western Australian iron ore project was ready to make its first shipment next month. ID:nB9N0W5024
Meanwhile, leading Chinese steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel 600019.SS is planning to launch operations of the first blast furnace at its long-awaited Zhanjiang steel project in Guangdong province on Friday this week.
January rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 dropped 0.3 percent to 1,889 yuan a tonne by the midday break.
Iron ore for immediate delivery to China's Tianjin port .IO62-CNI=SI was unchanged for the second day in succession on Tuesday at $57.10 a tonne.
The CISA index price for 62-percent grade iron ore slipped 0.6 percent to $55.96 per tonne.
Rebar and iron ore prices at 0334 GMT
Contract
Last
Change Pct Change SHFE REBAR JAN6
1889
-6.00
-0.32 DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO JAN6
375
-10.00
-2.60 THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX
57.1
+0.00
+0.00 METAL BULLETIN INDEX
56.21
-1.09
-1.90
Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day ($1 = 6.3831 Chinese yuan)