Copper rises due to the weakness of the dollar, while aluminum falls due to the increase in inventories

Aluminum prices fell on Monday as large deliveries to London Metal Exchange (LME) licensed warehouses triggered a sell-off, while copper was supported by a lower dollar despite concerns about demand in top consumer China.

At 11:00 GMT, benchmark LME aluminum was down 3% at $2,237 a tonne, while copper was up 0.5% at $7,579.

Aluminum stocks in LME warehouses rose by 65,825 tonnes to 433,025 on Friday.

“There was a big jump in (aluminum) inventories. Some think part of it will be Russian”, said a metal trader. “For copper, the key is China, which is not looking very healthy at the moment”.

Consumers shy away from Russian-origin aluminium, which has fueled fears that it will enter the LME system and distort prices.

Elsewhere, the decline in the dollar, which makes metals cheaper for holders of other currencies, helped boost copper, as did falling stocks in LME warehouses, according to traders.

In other base metals, zinc fell 2.1% to $2,878; lead was down 1% at $2,019; tin fell 0.1% to $19,900; and nickel was down 0.1% at $21,745.

With information from Reuters