May 20 (Reuters) -

Copper prices surged to record high levels on Monday as China's property support measures and better-than-expected industrial data added to momentum buying that has been fuelling base metals prices for the past month.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 3.4% to $11,034.50 per metric ton by 0602 GMT, having surged as much as 4.1% earlier in the session to a historic high of $11,104.50.

The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 5.8% to 88,130 yuan ($12,189.15) a ton. Earlier in the session, it was up 6.8% to a record high of 88,940 yuan a ton.

China on Friday announced "historic" steps to stabilise its crisis-hit property sector, while China's industrial output grew above expectations at 6.7% year-on-year in April, helped by improving external demand.

A trader said the metal price rally on Monday was exacerbated by systematic traders who simply chased the higher prices. LME copper has surged 29% so far this year and SHFE copper jumped 26% in the same period.

The futures prices, however, do not reflect an improvement in demand in the physical copper market. The premium to import copper into China's Yangshan area was at zero on Friday, compared with $60 in March, reflecting weak import demand.

SHFE copper inventories were last at 290,376 tons, compared with 33,130 tons at the start of the year, despite May being China's traditionally strong copper demand season.

"The force of investment inflows is so strong that it needs something big to stop. Chinese import slowdown, their export of surplus metal, Trafigura's deliveries reaching CME warehouses are likely 'speed-breakers'," said Sandeep Daga, a director at Metal Intelligence Centre.

A short-squeeze in the Comex copper contract, which hit a record high last week, also propelled prices globally, leading some traders to seek to buy physical metal and deliver them to U.S. warehouses.

"If history is a guide, the fear of missing out will take copper even higher before sanity returns in all markets together as global slowdown starts to cast its shadow," Daga said, referring to the oil market in 2008.

LME aluminium rose 1.2% to $2,644.50 a ton, zinc climbed 1.3% to $3,069.50, lead increased 1.3% to $2,314, tin advanced 1.3% to $34,710 and nickel was up 1.4% at $21,370.

SHFE aluminium rose 1.2% to 21,075 yuan a ton, nickel jumped 4.6% to 157,200 yuan, zinc advanced 2.4% to 24,330 yuan, lead increased 0.6% to 18,860 yuan and tin was up 2.4% at 281,220 yuan.

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($1 = 7.2302 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Sohini Goswami)