* Iron ore at below $38/tonne, lowest under spot-based system
* BC Iron halts output at iron ore mine, shares slide
By Manolo Serapio Jr
MANILA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Iron ore, at a decade-low below $38 a tonne, is set to post its eighth weekly loss out of nine and market participants don't see a near-term recovery in the raw material as Chinese steel demand remains weak.
The steelmaking commodity has only risen once in the past 13 weeks, with the decline accelerating from late October as the price breached $50. The price has fallen more than 47 percent this year, exceeding losses for all of 2014.
Iron ore for immediate delivery to China's Tianjin port .IO62-CNI=SI fell a further 2.1 percent to $37.50 a tonne on Thursday, according to The Steel Index (TSI), putting its weekly drop at almost 5 percent so far. It was the lowest ever for the spot benchmark since TSI began assessing prices in 2008.
Prior to the spot-based system, it was the lowest price since 2005 under the annual benchmark pricing era.
Key to the price weakness is the sustained growth in iron ore supply and waning steel demand in China, the biggest buyer of the world's iron ore.
"More mills are feeling the pain and we could see more closures ahead," said a Shanghai-based iron ore trader.
Some Chinese steel producers have either reduced output or shut completely as consumption continued to shrink this year after falling in 2014 for the first time in more than three decades due to a slowing economy. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13C2BB
"Physical deals were few and far between as traders look to weaker prices in the short-term," ANZ said in a note, on the slow activity in the spot iron ore market.
The sustained fall in Chinese steel prices point to further weakness in iron ore in the short term, the bank said.
Rebar, a construction steel product, was up 0.2 percent at 1,655 yuan ($257) a tonne on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 by midday on Friday. The most-traded contract touched a record low of 1,618 yuan on Dec. 1.
Australian iron ore miner BC Iron Ltd BCI.AX said it was suspending operations at its Nullagine joint venture because of low ore prices, sending its stock down more than 20 percent. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1401AI
Rebar and iron ore prices at 0352 GMT
Contract
Last
Change Pct Change SHFE REBAR MAY6
1655
+3.00
+0.18 DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO MAY6
287
+2.00
+0.70 SGX IRON ORE FUTURES JAN
36.55
+0.42
+1.16 THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX
37.5
-0.80
-2.09 METAL BULLETIN INDEX
38.52
-0.56
-1.43
Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day ($1 = 6.4507 Chinese yuan)