BEIJING, Oct 29 (Reuters) - China's biggest listed

steelmaker, Baoshan Iron & Steel, reported on

Tuesday a nearly 65% plunge in its third-quarter net profit,

undermined by a fall in steel prices.

The company, known as Baosteel, said in a filing to the

Shanghai Stock Exchange that it made net profit of 1.34 billion

yuan ($188 million), down from 3.8 billion yuan in the year-ago

period.

Baosteel is a subsidiary of state-owned China Baowu Steel

Group, the world's largest steelmaker by output.

Net profit over the first nine months of the year fell

29.56% from the same period a year before to 5.88 billion yuan,

it said.

Disappointing demand for steel amid a persistent property

downturn and weaker-than-expected consumption from the

infrastructure sector had hammered steel prices in the third

quarter, squeezing steelmakers' profit margins, analysts said.

In the first nine months of the year, the average price of

imported iron ore dipped 0.8% while steel prices slid 7.67%, the

state-backed China Iron and Steel Association said last week.

Losses among Chinese steelmakers totalled 34.1 billion yuan

from January to September, official data showed on Sunday.

Demand, however, showed signs of stabilising after a raft of

stimulus measures unveiled in late September boosted sentiment,

Baosteel said.

Baosteel produced 12.56 million metric tons of pig iron and

13.3 million tons of steel in the July-September quarter,

bringing the total in the first nine months of the year to 36.68

million tons and 39.61 million tons, respectively.

Export orders were 4.66 million tons in the first three

quarters, it said.

China made 768.48 million tons of crude steel in the first

nine months of this year, down 3.6% year-on-year, official data

showed.

($1 = 7.1363 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Amy Lv and Colleen Howe; Editing by Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)