Aug 29 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures held steady on Tuesday as traders assessed the impact on crops from hurricane Idalia in some key growing regions, while demand worries especially from top consumer China kept gains in check.
* The most-active December cotton contract CTZ3 was little changed at 86.74 cents per lb at 12:24 a.m. EDT (1624 GMT).
* "We have the hurricane coming in up through Georgia and the southeast that's providing some threat to the crop there, which is providing some pretty good support underneath the market right now," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with StoneX Group.
* "We're early enough in the season, so that the crop damage should be relatively minimal... On the other hand, there is also strong resistance around 90 cents. Also, the demand situation is quite poor, sales are very slow and there's definitely a lot of lingering concern there."
* Most of Florida's 21 million residents, along with many in Georgia and South Carolina, were under hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge warnings and advisories as hurricane Idalia was strengthening and lumbered toward Florida's Gulf Coast.
* Recent federal weekly export sales reports have showed decline in sales of the natural fiber, owing to lower sales to China as recovery in the world's second-largest economy has lost steam. EXP/COT
* Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in a weekly crop progress report on Monday, said 33% of the cotton crop was in good to excellent condition unchanged from last week.
* Chicago soybean and corn prices dropped on Tuesday after U.S. government data showed that a decline in crop conditions due to hot and dry weather was not as severe as many analysts had expected. GRA/
Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber