Foreign news on December 2, London aluminum futures fell on Thursday, around the Omicron novel coronavirus variant and the uncertainty of its impact on the economy to depress prices.

Aluminum for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.5 per cent to $2651 a tonne at 12: 47 Beijing time, while January aluminum on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.6 per cent to 18885 yuan a tonne in early trading.

However, supporting prices, LME aluminium inventories fell to 893775 tonnes, the lowest level since September 2007 and down 55 per cent from March. Most metal is flowing out of Malaysian warehouses, according to exchange data.

One aluminium trader said the decline in LME inventories was driven by demand-some to China and some to the west. All sectors (downstream demand) have improved, with the possible exception of real estate in China.

The premium of LME spot aluminium over the three-month contract rose to $16.30 a tonne, a sign of recent tight supply.

The chief executive of Codelco, Chile's largest copper producer, expects copper prices to fall 12 per cent within a year because supply will exceed demand by 2024. Only by 2024 will higher consumption of electric cars match output.

Huayou Cobalt Industry announced on the evening of December 1st that recently, part of the production line of Huayue's annual production of 60, 000 tons of nickel and 7800 tons of cobalt metal laterite nickel ore wet smelting project has completed equipment installation and commissioning, and recently put into trial production, successfully produced the first batch of products.

LME copper for three-month delivery fell 0.2 per cent to $9421 a tonne, nickel for three-month delivery fell 0.1 per cent to $19930 a tonne, and lead for three-month delivery fell 0.8 per cent to $2283 a tonne.

Shanghai copper fell 0.6% to 69070 yuan, Shanghai zinc rose 0.2% to 23150 yuan per ton, Shanghai nickel fell 0.9% to 147590 yuan per ton, and Shanghai tin rose 0.2% to 286880 yuan per ton.