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 was 0.7% lower at $2,468.5 per metric ton by 1007 GMT. 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.

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 reduction last Wednesday.

However, the technically driven 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 slid 0.2% to $9,455.5 a ton, zinc was 0.5% lower at $2,858.5, nickel declined 0.2% to $16,475, lead was flat at $2,055 and tin moved 0.2% lower to $32,070.

(Reporting by Julian Luk; Editing by Susan Fenton )