* Iron ore futures steady in Dalian, fall in Singapore
* Shanghai rebar ends lower after rising as much as 1.6 pct
* Spot iron ore rose on Monday after 11-day decline (Recasts, updates prices)
By Manolo Serapio Jr
MANILA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Iron ore futures gave up sharp gains on Tuesday as Chinese steel prices edged lower, reflecting prolonged caution among investors amid a glut and weak demand.
That suggests further risks ahead for spot iron ore which just rebounded on Monday after an 11-session slide that dragged the benchmark price to its lowest since at least 2008 at $37 a tonne.
Iron ore for May delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 closed flat at 288.50 yuan ($45) a tonne, after rising more than 3 percent at one point.
On the Singapore Exchange, January iron ore SZZFF6 fell 1 percent to $36.82 a tonne after earlier peaking at $37.60.
Wang Di, an analyst with CRU in Beijing, said that as weak fundamentals persist, any price gains in both iron ore and steel were unlikely to be sustained.
"There's been no significant change in underlying demand for steel," said Wang.
Winter is also curbing construction activity in China, further hitting steel consumption that continued to shrink this year after falling in 2014 for the first time in more than three decades.
"Winter is traditionally the lowest season for construction, and it would be even worse this year," given the prolonged weakness in demand, said Wang.
Rebar, used in construction, ended 0.1 percent lower at 1,657 yuan a tonne on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, off a session high of 1,686 yuan. The most-traded May rebar contract SRBcv1 touched an all-time low of 1,618 yuan this month.
There have been closures by Chinese steel plants this year as producers responded to weak demand and widening losses. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13C1XP
"We believe the pace of closures in China's steel capacity will pick up during the upcoming six months, which will be a negative for short-term prices," ANZ Bank said in a note.
Benchmark 62-percent grade iron ore for delivery to China's Tianjin port .IO62-CNI=SI climbed 1.4 percent to $37.50 a tonne on Monday, according to The Steel Index. That followed spikes in ferrous derivatives in the previous session.
Glut-hit iron ore has fallen more than 47 percent this year, exceeding what it lost in all of 2014.
Australia, the world's top iron ore supplier, forecast its budget deficit would swell to A$37.4 billion ($27.17 billion) in the year to June as falling prices for key resource exports open a gaping hole in tax revenue. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1441EF
Rebar and iron ore prices at 0722 GMT
Contract
Last
Change Pct Change SHFE REBAR MAY6
1657
-2.00
-0.12 DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO MAY6
288.5
+0.00
+0.00 SGX IRON ORE FUTURES JAN
36.82
-0.37
-0.99 THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX
37.5
+0.50
+1.35 METAL BULLETIN INDEX
39.06
+0.76
+1.98
Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day ($1 = 6.4570 Chinese yuan) ($1 = 1.3763 Australian dollars)