* Spot iron ore near record low at just above $47/tonne
* Chinese mills not keen on buying forward ore cargoes-trader
By Manolo Serapio Jr
MANILA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Shanghai steel futures fell to a record low on Monday, deepening losses for producers as consumption shrinks in top market China and reducing appetite for cargoes of raw material iron ore.
Steel consumption in China dropped 5.7 percent to 590.47 million tonnes in January-October, industry group China Iron and Steel Association said on Friday, as a slowing economy dampens industrial activity. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1381B3
Chinese steel mills are limiting stocks of iron ore in response to weak demand, with many producers facing losses that are forcing them to either cut output or close operations.
"Some mills are hesitating to take any forward cargoes and only prefer to buy those arriving in one to two weeks' time. Anything more than that, there's not much appetite," said a Shanghai-based iron ore trader.
The most-traded rebar, a construction steel product, on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 fell to an all-time low of 1,752 yuan ($275) a tonne, and was down 0.2 percent at 1,757 yuan by midday.
Iron ore for immediate delivery to China's Tianjin port .IO62-CNI=SI slipped 0.8 percent to $47.40 a tonne on Friday, according to The Steel Index (TSI).
The spot benchmark lost more than 4 percent last week, its seventh weekly fall in eight, and is now close to July's low of $44.10. That was the lowest level ever based on TSI records that date back to 2008.
Stocks of iron ore at Chinese ports kept rising, with weekly inventory up 550,000 tonnes to 86.55 million tonnes on Friday, the highest since May, based on data compiled by consultancy SteelHome. SH-TOT-IRONINV
On the Dalian Commodity Exchange, the January iron ore contract DCIOcv1 was up 0.4 percent at 351.50 yuan a tonne.
Rebar and iron ore prices at 0427 GMT
Contract
Last
Change Pct Change SHFE REBAR MAY6
1757
-4.00
-0.23 DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO JAN6
351.5
+1.50
+0.43 SGX IRON ORE FUTURES DEC
45.45
+0.08
+0.18 THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX
47.4
-0.40
-0.84 METAL BULLETIN INDEX
48.14
+0.33
+0.69
Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day ($1 = 6.3782 Chinese yuan)