WRAPUP 1-China's iron ore imports seen soaring to 1 bln T

* Vale says strong China demand to keep iron ore mkt tight

* Fortescue sees prices staying high in 2012

* Rio Tinto says no requests to delay shipments

By Ruby Lian and Fayen Wong

QINGDAO, China, Sept 28 (Reuters) - China's iron ore imports may surge to 1 billion tonnes by 2015, up around 60 percent from last year, with the world's biggest steel producer able to cope with a potential recession in developed economies, miners said on Wednesday.

China is the biggest buyer of the steel-making raw material and firm Chinese demand has been largely behind the strength in spot iron ore prices which, at above $170 a tonne, have trebled from late 2008.

Australian miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd , which sells nearly all of its iron ore to China, forecast a rise in Chinese imports to 1 billion tonnes by 2015 at an industry conference in China's northeastern city of Qingdao.

That will be more than 60 percent higher than China's imports last year of nearly 619 million tonnes. Fortescue Chief Executive Neville Power said global prices are expected to remain high next year before additional capacity comes online between 2013 and 2015.

Brazil's Vale , the world's No. 1 iron ore miner, said China's robust demand will keep global supplies tight.

"Vale is still confident in the market fundamentals," said Jose Carlos Martins, Vale executive director for sales and marketing.

"Besides China, several emerging regions with large population also have strong growth potential. Emerging countries still have a significant gap in housing and infrastructure requirements, indicating strong potential for steel consumption growth in the long run."

CHINA STRENGTH NOT ENOUGH?

Vale Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira told Reuters earlier this month that the miner was not seeing any slowdown in the global iron ore market despite a crippling sovereign debt crisis in Europe and a weak U.S. economy.

But analysts say China's strength may not be enough to hold up prices.

"If Europe turns around to Vale and says 'we want 20 percent less ore this month' then that tonnage finds its way to China...so you have China sucking up all the weakness from everywhere," said Graeme Train, commodity analyst at Macquarie in Shanghai.

"The risk though is even if China is buying iron ore and the situation ex-China gets really bad, not even China's strength can hold the price up at where it is."

Already, spot iron ore prices IODBZ00-PLT have fallen nearly 11 percent from a record high of $193 a tonne in mid-February, weighed down by signs of slower Chinese steel demand and a cloudy outlook for the global economy.

Vale, together with fellow global miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton , control more than two thirds of the global seaborne iron ore market.

Rio has not received any requests from Chinese buyers to delay iron ore shipments, Alan Davies, president of international operations for Rio Tinto, told reporters on the sidelines of the conference. (Writing and additional reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.)