PARIS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Steel prices, which have collapsed more than 50 percent in the last couple of months, could rebound by the end of the first quarter of 2009, a leading German steel and metals trader told Reuters. "There is a fair chance that we see a rebound, a stabilisation in the prices around February, March," Kloeckner Chief Executive Thomas Ludwig said on the sidelines of a steel conference in Paris. Ludwig said he expected production cuts announced by steelmakers across the globe to help support prices, adding the first signs of such a recovery was reflected in scrap prices. "Scrap and rebar prices are stabilising, there is a fair chance to build up a market in the first quarter," Ludwig said. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, editing by Sue Thomas) Keywords: STEEL KLOECKNER/ (humeyra.pamuk@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: humeyra.pamuk.reuters.com@reuters.net; +44 20 7542 9736) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.