By Francesca Freeman LONDON--Copper futures carved out gains on the London Metal Exchange Friday, boosted by some strong Chinese import data and a weaker dollar. The LME's flagship three-month copper contract was up 0.7% at $7,260 a metric ton in morning European trade. The metal slumped 1.8% Thursday after a weak set of Chinese economic data raised concerns over the country's demand for industrial metals. Chinese trade data Friday painted a more positive picture, however. According to China's General Administration of Customs, the country imported 441,291 metric tons of copper and copper products in December, up 29.3% on the year and 2% higher than the previous month. "Because both copper and aluminium stocks in the warehouses of the Shanghai Futures Exchange have declined sharply in recent months, this points to high real demand in China, where exchange-registered stocks have been reduced since the beginning of April," said Commerzbank. "Copper stocks have been halved to 122,000 tons and are now at a two-year low." China is the world's No. 1 copper consumer, accounting for around 40% of global demand for the metal that is used in everything from smartphones to air conditioning units. A weaker dollar also lent some support to copper prices Friday. Since the metal is priced in dollars, it becomes more affordable to other currency holders when the greenback softens. Later Friday, market attention should turn to the release of monthly U.S. nonfarm payroll data, due for publication at 1330 GMT. A strong payroll reading could be a mixed blessing for copper prices, as it paves the way for the Federal Reserve to continue winding down its stimulus measures, often cited as a key support to commodities prices in recent years. In other base metals Friday, aluminum was up 0.5% at $1,757.50 a ton, zinc was 0.8% higher at $2,026 a ton, nickel was 2.4% higher at $13,671 a ton, lead was up 1.2% at $2,124.75 a ton and tin was 1.1% higher at $21,775 ton.

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