Lead headed for its biggest weekly slump since at least 1987 and aluminum dropped the most in two years as consumer demand for cars and houses crumbles amid the widening world economic slowdown.
Lead, used in car batteries, declined 18 percent this week, with all industrial metals on the London Metal Exchange falling in the period. Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, reported its first drop in quarterly sales in seven years and Volvo AB, the second-biggest heavy-truck maker, expects a 10 percent decline in the North American market this year.
''The most important factors for industrial metals are construction and auto manufacturing and those two have been hit,'' Commerzbank AG analyst Eugen Weinberg said in Frankfurt. A car contains about 300 pounds (130 kilograms) of aluminum, according to Commerzbank.
Lead for three-month delivery fell $113 to $1,174 a metric ton by 10:10 a.m. on the LME, for a weekly drop of 18 percent. Aluminum tumbled $37, or 1.8 percent, to $1,970 a ton, or an 11 percent drop for the week, the most since May 19, 2006. Copper declined every day this week, pulling prices down 21 percent.
Industrial metals extended declines as shares tumbled around the world and the dollar gained, making metals more expensive for buyers using other currencies. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed just 41 points from the lowest since 1982.
Zinc slid $70 to $1,130, tin dropped $900 to $11,100 a ton and nickel declined $200 to $9,150 a ton.
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