* Further downside risk as miners defend market share - ANZ
* Dalian iron ore at lowest since July
By Manolo Serapio Jr
MANILA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Iron ore fell to a fresh four-month low, and within striking distance of its weakest level in at least seven years, amid waning steel demand in top consumer China.
The steelmaking commodity, down by a third this year, is also on track to stretch its losing streak to a fourth consecutive week.
"The pressure on the market is clearly still playing out and we haven't seen any supply response so far," said Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank.
"In fact we've seen the opposite, with big producers really aggressively protecting market share. And with Chinese steel markets continuing to weaken, it raises the risk of further downside in iron ore prices."
Iron ore for immediate delivery to China's Tianjin port .IO62-CNI=SI slid 1.2 percent to $47.70 a tonne on Thursday, according to The Steel Index (TSI). It has lost nearly 4 percent so far this week.
It was the lowest for the spot benchmark since July 8 when it touched $44.10, its weakest on record since TSI began compiling data in 2008.
Based on annual pricing that preceded the current spot-based system, it was the lowest since 2005, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs (N:GS).
Weaker futures on Friday could offer more downward pressure on spot pricing. The January iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 was down 1 percent at 346 yuan ($55) a tonne by 0232 GMT, after touching 342.50 yuan earlier, its lowest since July 9.
Hynes said ANZ sees iron ore at $48 a tonne by year-end and "remaining in the low $50s in 2016 and not really recovering much above that until 2018."
Key to the weakness in iron ore is the Chinese steel market, with demand continuing to shrink this year due to slower economic growth. Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 was little changed at 1,783 yuan a tonne, after touching a record low of 1,768 yuan on Thursday.
A Reuters poll released in September showed iron ore will be trapped around $50 a tonne over the next two years, about a quarter of the highs the bulk commodity scaled during the mining boom. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N11T1VT
Top iron ore miner Vale SA VALE5.SA expects its flagship S11D iron ore project to be completed on time and as much as $2.6 billion below budget, reflecting the sharp depreciation in the Brazilian currency real. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1301DX
Rebar and iron ore prices at 0232 GMT
Contract
Last
Change Pct Change SHFE REBAR MAY6
1783
+4.00
+0.22 DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO JAN6
346
-3.50
-1.00 SGX IRON ORE FUTURES DEC
44.25
-0.08
-0.18 THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX
47.7
-0.60
-1.24 METAL BULLETIN INDEX
48.71
-0.47
-0.96
Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day ($1 = 6.3460 Chinese yuan)