Updates official prices

By Julian Luk

London, Sept 23 (Reuters) -Aluminium prices hit 10-day lows on Monday on technical weakness after rallies largely driven by the U.S. rate cut last week, although downside was limited by strong import data from top consumer China.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange CMAL3 was 0.6% lower at $2,471 per metric ton during official rings.It earlier dipped to $2,456 for its lowest since Sept. 13.

Prices could fall to $2,407 this week, following their failure to break the resistance zone of $2,575 to $2,586, Reuters analyst Wang Tao said.

Aluminium producer selling interest was evident on Monday morning to pressure on prices, brokerage Marex said in a commentary.

Metal producers typically sell forward to hedge their sales and lock in high prices.

The retreat came after aluminium prices gained 8.3% in the seven days leading up to the U.S. Federal Reserve's larger-than-usual half-percentage-point rate reduction last Wednesday.

However, the downward pressure could be partly offset by strong buying appetite for the metal widely used in automaking and construction.

China's imports of primary aluminium more than doubled to 1.512 million tons year-on-year from January to August, customs data showed.

For other metals, LME copper CMCU3 slid 0.2% to $9,455.5 a ton, zinc CMZN3 was 0.1% lower at $2,871, nickel CMNI3 declined 0.1% to $16,500, lead CMPB3 was down 0.2% at $2,050 and tin CMSN3 moved 0.2% lower to $32,050.

Reporting by Julian Luk; Editing by Susan Fenton

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