* China copper imports at six-month high in July * Fed interest rate move supresses dollar * Coming Up: U.S. Federal budget, July; 1800 GMT By Susan Thomas LONDON Aug 10(Reuters) - Copper rose on Wednesday, as the Federal Reserve soothed panicked financial markets, the dollar fell and China's purchases of the metal soared last month, signalling demand in the world's biggest consumer of the metal was intact. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,869 in official rings, after losing 0.6 percent in the last session to close at $8,730. Distress about a cut to the U.S. debt rating by Standard and Poor's on Friday sent already turbulent markets sharply lower. Base metals fell and the number of trades on the LME hit a daily record of over 100,000 on Monday as volumes soared. The Fed's pledge on Tuesday to keep interest rates at extraordinary low levels through to mid-2013 reversed investor sentiment, yanking world shares from recent losses and pushing the dollar lower against major currencies. "The rebound (in metals) was largely due to recovering equity markets, and the Fed statement last night that they are going to keep interest rates low which means the dollar will remain weak and that is beneficial for base metals," VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said. A weaker dollar makes metals cheaper for holders of other currencies. "We also had Chinese numbers which were better than last month," Andrey added. China's imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products rose 9.5 percent on the month to a six-month high in July, as buyers took advantage of lower prices since the metal rose to a record high $10,190 per tonne in February. "Most of these imports in July would have been bought during late May, early June when the price was well off the February-April levels," David Thurtell, analyst at Citigroup, said. China's overall exports also hit a record high last month as shipments to Europe and the United States proved surprisingly buoyant, easing concerns that debt problems abroad may hold back the world's No. 2 economy. "Barring a further panic in the equity markets, we would venture to say that we've likely witnessed the lows in base metals for 2011 and higher prices are now in order into year end," RBC Capital Markets said in a research note. ALUMINIUM Aluminium inventories in the Dutch port of Vlissingen jumped by 195,850 tonnes, in the biggest single-day inflow into LME warehouses, data showed n Wednesday. Last month, aluminium stocks jumped by 100,000 tonnes in the Dutch port as traders speculated that Glencore had registered material in warehouses there and that more may follow. LME three-month aluminium was $2,436 per tonne in rings, from a close of $2,407 on Tuesday. Tin was $23,825 from Tuesday's close of $22,775, while zinc was $2,170 from $2,100. Nickel was $22,100 from $21,205. Lead was $2,353 from $2,254. Metal Prices at 1221 GMT Comex copper in cents/lb, LME prices in $/T and SHFE prices in yuan/T Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2010 Ytd Pct move COMEX Cu 403.80 6.80 +1.71 444.70 -9.20 LME Alum 2435.50 28.50 +1.18 2470.00 -1.40 LME Cu 8864.00 134.00 +1.53 9600.00 -7.67 LME Lead 2353.00 99.00 +4.39 2550.00 -7.73 LME Nickel 22050.00 845.00 +3.98 24750.00 -10.91 LME Tin 23825.00 1050.00 +4.61 26900.00 -11.43 LME Zinc 2170.00 70.00 +3.33 2454.00 -11.57 SHFE Alu 17590.00 325.00 +1.88 16840.00 4.45 SHFE Cu* 67090.00 1130.00 +1.71 71850.00 -6.62 SHFE Zin 16710.00 310.00 +1.89 19475.00 -14.20 ** Benchmark month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07

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