* Dalian iron ore down for a third session
* Spot prices for benchmark 62% Fe fall to $97 a tonne
BEIJING, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Chinese iron ore futures fellfor a third straight session on Wednesday, dragged lower byincreasing seaborne arrivals at the country's ports and highershipments from big miners.
The most-traded iron ore futures contract on the DalianCommodity Exchange, for January delivery, fell as muchas 1.1% to 658 yuan ($92.80) per tonne in early trade.
Arrivals of the steelmaking raw material in China totalled24.1 million tonnes in the week of Sept.9-15, up by 6.3 milliontonnes from a week earlier, data compiled by Mysteel consultancyshowed. Shipments from Australia and Brazil last week rose by890,000 tonnes to 21.9 million tonnes.
Futures contract of the most-active construction steel rebaron the Shanghai Futures Exchange, for January delivery,was down 0.9% at 3,509 yuan a tonne, as of 0220 GMT, falling fora second session.
"Market will further evaluate the impact on steel products'consumption and output from the coming National Day holiday,"Huatai Futures wrote in a note, adding that the underperformanceof the newly launched iron ore futures contract based on newdelivery rules also affected sentiment.
Earlier this week, China's Dalian Commodity Exchangeintroduced a brand-based system for iron ore futures, with thefirst contract slated for delivery in September 2020 trading 3%lower in morning trade.
"Market will reevaluate the raw materials' impacts on finalproducts." Huatai Futures said.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Benchmark 62% iron ore for delivery to China<SH-CCN-IRNOR62>, as assessed by SteelHome consultancy, edgedlower to $97 a tonne on Tuesday.
* Futures for hot-rolled coil steel, used in carsand home appliances, for January delivery on the ShanghaiFutures Exchange, dropped 0.6% to 3,520 yuan a tonne.
* Other steelmaking ingredients were mixed, with Daliancoking coal down 0.9% at 1,338 yuan a tonne, while cokefutures edged up 0.4% at 1,988 yuan.
* China's Dalian Exchange brought in brands deliverable foriron ore futures slated for delivery September 2020 onwardsafter some low quality shipments in the past.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday hisadministration could seal a deal on trade with China before theU.S. presidential election, or an agreement could be reached theday after U.S. voters go to the polls.
* For the top stories metals and other news, click TOP/MTLor MET/L($1 = 7.0905 Chinese yuan renminbi)(Reporting by Min Zhang and Tom Daly; Editing by Aditya Soni)