Nov 12 (Reuters) - Shanghai aluminium prices rose to a three-year high on Thursday, helped by a fall in inventories and an uptick in demand from some sectors in top consumer China.

The most-traded December aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed as much as 2.5% to 15,415 yuan ($2,325.77) a tonne, its highest since Nov. 9, 2017. The contract is the best performer among base metals on the ShFE, rising 17.7% year-to-date.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.3% to $1,924 a tonne by 0707 GMT, having hit its highest since March 2019 on Monday.

China's social inventories of primary aluminium ingots in eight consumption areas assessed by metals prices provider SMM fell to 635,000 tonnes, their lowest since Jan. 16 and compared with 1.68 million tonnes in April.

ShFE aluminium stocks have been moving sideways since July and were last at 231,716 tonnes, or a 57% drop from their 2020 peak of 533,994 tonnes in March.

"The drawdown has been aided by the recovery in the construction, automobile, and photovoltaic sectors," said ING analysts in a quote.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Premium for ShFE December aluminium contract over the February 2021 contract was as high as 445 yuan a tonne, hovering near its peak spread of 465 yuan hit on Nov. 2.

* Domestic prices of Chinese aluminium ingots climbed to 15,350 yuan a tonne, their highest since Nov. 13, 2017, SMM data showed.

* LME copper rose 0.2% to $6,901.50 a tonne and zinc dipped 0.2% to $2,618.50 a tonne. ShFE copper edged up 0.1% to 51,800 yuan a tonne and ShFE nickel climbed 0.5% to 119,010 yuan a tonne.

* Chile's Codelco rolled over its copper cathode premium of $83-a-tonne with a South Korean customer into next year, sources said.

* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or ($1 = 6.6279 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Uttaresh.V and Ramakrishnan M.)