Nov 15 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures held steady on Wednesday as market participants awaited the weekly export sales data, while persisting demand concerns clouded the natural fiber's outlook.

* The second-month March contract CTc2 was flat at 81.15 cents per lb at 11:47 ET (1647 GMT). Prices were down 3.2% last week.

* "The cotton market is range bound after last week's retreat, demand is still not good enough," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.

*"In the foreseeable future, demand is not going to be good for cotton because the global economy is going into a recession or is in a recession already."

* Investors' focus shifts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly export sales report due on Thursday. EXP/COT

* "Despite some shower activity, the U.S. harvest continues to progress nicely. Currently traders are looking ahead to tomorrow’s weekly US export data release, and we think it could again be quite strong," Louis Rose of Tennessee-based Rose Commodity Group wrote in a note.

* The USDA's weekly crop progress report released on Monday showed 67% of the cotton crop had been harvested in the week ended Nov. 12, compared with 57% in the prior week.

* The dollar index .DXY was up 0.2%, making cotton less attractive to buyers holding other currencies. USD/

* In the grain market, soybean inched down as investors weighed torrid weather in Brazilian crop belts and brisk demand for U.S. supplies. Corn and wheat futures also ticked lower. GRA/

Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber