London, November 24 news: The London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminum futures rose sharply to about a 10-year high on Thursday, catching up to historically high copper prices, and investment funds are buying basic metals across the board. "This is a comprehensive fund buying. This year the fund has invested heavily and they hope to maintain high prices until the end of the year," said one trader. The production of Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum producer, has fallen, providing further support for the strengthening of aluminum prices. The three-month aluminum price index closed at US$2,085 per tonne, higher than the closing price of 2,060 on Wednesday. The intraday high rose to 2,095, which was the first time in February 1995 that it hit 2,155. In January of that year, the price of aluminum rose to 2,195. ** Alcoa Production Cuts** Alcoa said on Wednesday that concerns about electricity costs will lead to a drop in production at the 195,000-ton/year Eastalco smelter in Maryland. But the plant's output has dropped to only 10,000 tons per month, and there was widespread expectation several months ago. “Some short sellers were caught off guard because they thought they would reduce production in the early part of the year rather than the present. Buying a reserve boosted the interest of the fund,†said another trader. Some analysts had predicted that aluminum prices will rise because of strong demand, and prices are sensitive to energy costs, while electricity prices are high. But others insist on abundant supply and increase in quantity. "I think the current price is unreasonable and the market cannot be maintained at this level," said Macmillan, a metal strategist at Bache Financial, earlier this week. "LME aluminum stocks have increased by about 100,000 tons in the past week, and I think this part comes from private hidden stocks. Once copper prices fall, aluminum prices will follow." LME aluminum stocks increased from less than 500,000 tons a week ago to more than 620,000 tons, but on Thursday it also decreased by nearly 4,000 tons. Dealers said that this may show that in addition to LME stocks, there are sufficient stocks held by consumers, producers and traders. There are rumors in the industry that a large-scale trader has about 1 million tons of aluminum. Metal stocks are often not known because holders are either kept secret for business reasons or because other warehouses offer rents that are less expensive than LMEs and are stored in non-LME warehouses. **The copper market regains its upward trajectory** The turbulent three-month copper in the past two weeks also rose strongly, closing at 4,190 US dollars per ton, up 100 US dollars or 2.4%, is expected to try the recent record high hit 4,243. The market is still focused on the short position of the quilt in China. Trader Liu Qibing may have accumulated a lot of short-sinking losses in options transactions that are not regulated by market authorities. Market participants in China and London believe that Liu Qibing has used the futures and OTC derivatives to create a huge short position. It is alleged that Liu Yuancheng represents the China State Reserve Bureau to conduct transactions. OTC options are transactions that are directly concluded between the entity and the entity and therefore are not guaranteed by the market clearing company. They are also difficult to track and constitute the basis of the transaction. The market is still in a heated state, and participants continue to focus on how SRB solves the short position problem. Traders said that due to the current lack of real information on SRB, copper prices remain high. They pointed out that grabbing the support will keep the copper at a level of over US$4,000/ton and avoid the pressure from options related selling. Of the other base metals, nickel remained strong in the near term, surpassing the 13,000 US dollar mark to close at 13,050, and closed at 12,625 yesterday. Zinc closed at 1,649, up 26 US dollars; lead rose 13 US dollars to 988; Tin rose 145 US dollars to 6,150.