* China copper imports up 8.1 pct at 410,680 T * Euro rises against dollar * Coming up: U.S. weekly jobless claims at 1230 GMT By Harpreet Bhal LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Copper hit its highest in almost two months on Thursday as upbeat trade data and better-than-expected imports of the metal in top consumer China reinforced hopes of a revival in demand for industrial materials. Surprisingly firm rebounds in China's exports and imports in July offered some hope that the world's second-largest economy might be stabilising after more than two years of slowing growth. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was at $7,159.25 a tonne at 0951 GMT, up 2 percent from a close of $7,006 on Wednesday. It earlier hit its highest level since June 17 at $7,170 a tonne in intraday trade. "The data supports our positive view that the period of destocking in China is over and we forecast an improvement in metals demand and also a stabilisation of growth in China over the coming months," said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank. "The sentiment was also very downbeat in the market and the data has triggered some short-covering." China is the world's largest copper consumer, accounting for around 40 percent of global refined demand. Data showed China's imports of copper rose 8.1 percent to 410,680 tonnes in July from 379,951 tonnes in the previous month. Some analysts said that although the figures from China were positive, a seasonally slower month for demand could prevent sustained gains for the metal in the short term. "Markets are near record shorts in copper so after positive news in China's trade data, we could see copper prices finally break out from the recent trading range, but I don't think it will be sustained," Natalie Rampono at ANZ in Melbourne said. "We're in the seasonally slower months for demand, so we're still expecting a bit of near-term weakness," she said, adding markets may well be preempting the expected seasonal fourth-quarter recovery in demand. ANZ sees prices averaging $7,330 in December, and closing the year around $7,500 a tonne. Dollar weakness helped support gains for metals prices. The euro rose after above-forecast German trade surplus and Wednesday's better-than-expected German factory data. A weak dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. unit cheaper for holders of other currencies. In industry news, mining group Rio Tinto has scrapped efforts to sell its loss-making Pacific Aluminium business, blaming poor market conditions as weaker iron ore, copper and coal prices dragged first-half profit down 18 percent. Metal Prices at 0953 GMT Comex copper in cents/lb, LME prices in $/T and SHFE prices in yuan/T Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2012 Ytd Pct move LME Alum 1828.25 31.25 +1.74 2073.00 -11.81 LME Cu 7159.50 153.50 +2.19 7931.00 -9.73 LME Lead 2136.00 30.00 +1.42 2330.00 -8.33 LME Nickel 14203.00 228.00 +1.63 17060.00 -16.75 LME Tin 21621.00 371.00 +1.75 23400.00 -7.60 LME Zinc 1878.75 30.75 +1.66 2080.00 -9.68 SHFE Alu 14250.00 45.00 +0.32 15435.00 -7.68 SHFE Cu* 51650.00 1460.00 +2.91 57690.00 -10.47 SHFE Zin 14645.00 100.00 +0.69 15625.00 -6.27 ** 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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