DALIAN, China, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Steel demand growth inChina, the world's biggest steel market, will revive by early2011, Jose Carlos Martins, executive director of ferrous metalsat the world's top iron ore miner Vale (VALE5.SA), said onWednesday.

"I see demand slowing for two or three months, then growingagain. We need to prepare for growth again by the end of 2010 orin early 2011," he told reporters on the sidelines of aconference in Dalian, a major Chinese port.

Chinese steel demand appeared to waver in recent months afterthe government took steps to dampen the property market and therewas a hint of slower expansion in China's car industry.

But Baosteel (600019.SS), a top Chinese steel mill, saidearlier this month it would raise its widely watched prices inOctober, signalling an apparent tightening in the market.

That may have been because China's steel supply has slippedalong with its demand. Government efforts to hit a five yearenergy-saving target that expires at the end of 2010 haveprompted a crackdown on power-hungry steel mills, trimmingproduction in several provinces.

Crude steel production peaked in May and slowed for each ofthe next three months to 51.6 million tonnes in August, the firstmonth to record a year-on-year fall since April 2009.

But Martins played down the significance of the moves to cutsteel mills' power usage.

"The impact is not so big," he said. "Iron ore demand isgood, customers are taking their volumes, we have seen no impacton sales."

Vale has not pushed back investment plans due to the recentslowdown, he said.

"We've been going full blast since last year. We don't intendto stop because once in a while the market stops a little bit totake a breath."

China is the world's biggest market for iron ore and Vale isthe biggest supplier globally, followed by Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) andBHP Billiton (BHP.AX), which ship ore from Australia.

The three companies control two-thirds of the total seaborneiron ore trade, making them easy targets for rhetoric from theChina Iron & Steel Association (CISA), which is determined togain the upper hand in negotiations over price of imported ore.