By Glenys Sim Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Aluminum fell for a sixth day in Asia after stockpiles increased to the highest in fourteen years as the global economic slowdown sapped demand. Copper also declined. Inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange rose to 1.83 million metric tons yesterday, the highest since December 1994. Supplies on the LME have nearly doubled since the start of the year as aluminum prices fell 30 percent. “Base metals prices remain under pressure” from rising inventories, Tobias Merath, head of commodity research at Credit Suisse Group, said in a note today. “Weak auto sales indicate that demand for metals is weakening fast” which will be particularly negative for aluminum, nickel and zinc, he said. London Metal Exchange aluminum fell 0.4 percent to $1,693 a ton at 11:30 a.m. in Singapore. The metal lost as much as 2.8 percent to $1,686 yesterday, the lowest since July 2005. Aluminum for February delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped as much as 2.8 percent to 11,730 yuan ($1,706) a ton. It fell the past five days and ended the morning session at 11,775 yuan. U.S. November auto sales declined 41 percent at General Motors Corp. and 31 percent at Ford Motor Co. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. posted drops of 34 percent and 32 percent respectively. GM has said it may run out of cash by year-end as the recession curbs demand. Aluminum became the second-most used material in U.S. cars in 2006, according to the Aluminum Association, a trade group. Each passenger car or truck in North America contained an average 319 pounds of the metal that year, up 16 percent from 2002, according to the group’s web site. Among other LME-traded metals, copper fell 1 percent to $3,520 a ton as did zinc to $1,157. Nickel added 0.4 percent to $9,540 a ton, and tin gained 1.6 percent to $12,150. To contact the reporter for this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

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