* Dalian iron ore rises as much as 7 pct as rebar recovers
* Coking coal hits record high in Dalian, up nearly 8 pct
By Manolo Serapio Jr
MANILA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Chinese steel futures jumped more than 2 percent on Thursday to end a four-day losing streak amid a firm outlook for demand in the world's top consumer, fueling a rally in steelmaking raw materials iron ore and coking coal.
Coking coal surged nearly 8 percent to hit a record-high, while iron ore climbed as much as 7 percent.
The recovery in steel and iron ore futures followed a four-day slide after the Shanghai Futures Exchange hiked transaction fees and imposed trading limits to tame speculative trading that lifted rebar futures to 4-1/2-year highs last week. Rebar prices in the physical market have fallen much more slowly than futures prices in the past four days, indicating that underlying sentiment remains bullish, said Richard Lu, analyst at CRU consultancy in Beijing.
"The physical market has not completely collapsed. Traders did not sell their inventories with big discounts," said Lu, reiterating that most mills have full order books in August.
The most-active rebar on the Shanghai exchange was up 2.6 percent at 3,826 yuan ($574) a tonne by 0234 GMT, after peaking at 3,860 yuan earlier.
Steel inventories among Chinese traders had been falling in an indication of strong end-user demand. As of Aug. 11, inventories of rebar stood at 3.78 million tonnes, less than half of this year's peak of 8.4 million tonnes reached in February, according to data tracked by SteelHome consultancy. Iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was last up 5.4 percent at 553.50 yuan a tonne, after initially rising as far as 561.50 yuan.
Coking coal climbed as much as 7.7 percent to a record high of 1,451.50 yuan a tonne. Coke rose 5.8 percent to 2,241.50 yuan.
($1 = 6.6712 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Joseph Radfo