China rebar, iron ore remain weak on slow demand

* Tepid economic outlook weigh on demand for steel, iron ore

* Big steelmakers reported $756 mln of losses in Jan-Feb

* Mills ask for discount to buy iron ore (Update iron ore, rebar close prices)

SHANGHAI, April 15 (Reuters) - Chinese steel and iron ore futures stemmed losses on Tuesday, while any gains were limited by a tepid pick-up in demand for the two commodities in the world's top consumer.

Demand for metals traditionally improves in the second quarter as construction and manufacturing activity firms, but a sluggish recovery in China and the lack of any major economic stimulus by Beijing is expected to pressure commodity prices.

"The general market sentiment remains weak amid gloomy expectations for first-quarter economic growth, which keeps denting steel demand and prices," said Xia Junyan, an analyst with Wanda Futures in Shanghai.

"I don't expect any big improvement in steel prices in the near future."

The most-traded rebar for October delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed unchanged at 3,369 yuan a tonne. It earlier touched 3,336 yuan, its lowest price in more than a week.

China's major steel companies lost 4.7 billion yuan ($755.74 million) in the first two months of the year, compared with a profit of 5.1 billion yuan in the same period last year, local media reported on Monday, citing data from the China Iron & Steel Association.

Shrinking profit margins and falling steel prices are forcing Chinese steelmakers, which produce about half of the world's steel output, to curb purchases of iron ore.

"The market has been quiet since Monday afternoon, and everyone is watching closely for the upcoming economic data in order to find clues for the market trend," said an iron ore trader in Beijing.

"Demand is still there, but steel mills are bargaining a lot and offering very low prices for cargoes."

China's gross domestic product likely grew 7.3 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace in five years, according to economists polled by Reuters, ahead of the data to be released on Wednesday.

Iron ore for delivery in September on the Dalian Commodity Exchange inched up 0.87 percent to 812 yuan by close, after falling for three consecuctive days in a row.

Iron ore for immediate delivery to China stood little changed at $117 a tonne on Monday, after falling nearly 2 percent to $116.90 a tonne on Friday, according to data compiler Steel Index.

Global miner Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) said its first-quarter iron ore shipments fell 8 percent from the previous quarter due to weather-related disruptions in Australia and Canada, but shipments were still up 16 percent from a year ago.

Rio Tinto said it would still meet full-year production target of 295 million tonnes to meet growing demand from China.

Shanghai rebar futures and iron ore indexes at 0740 GMT

Contract Last Change Pct Change SHFE REBAR OCT4 3369 +0.00 +0.00 DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO SEP4 812 +7.00 +0.87 THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX 117 +0.10 +0.09 METAL BULLETIN INDEX 117.74 +0.37 +0.32 Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day

($1 = 6.2191 Chinese Yuan) (Reporting by Ruby Lian and Fayen Wong; Editing by Richard Pullin and Gopakumar Warrier)