Ongoing jitters about Chinese debt after a ratings downgrade and the prospects of higher US rates also weighed on the market.
Financial markets were rattled when North Korea said on Friday it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean after US President Donald Trump threatened to destroy the reclusive country.
Some banks have begun to pare back credit lines to smaller trading companies holding industrial metals in South Korea, two industry sources told Reuters.
"For us, this North Korean tension is short-term market noise, it's something that moves prices maybe one or two days," said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Julius Baer in Zurich.
"We still have a cautious view on the metals segment overall. We think this speculative frenzy in industrial metals still has to deflate since prices are detached from fundamentals."
Metals prices probably needed to correct another 5-10 percent to where they were justified by supply/demand fundamentals, Ruecker added.
The London Metal Exchange index of six metals surged 21 percent during the three months before its peak on Sept. 4 and has given up 3.5 percent since then.
FUNDAMENTALS
ShFE FEES: China's Shanghai Futures Exchange said on Friday it will hike the intra-day transaction fee to 30 yuan ($4.55) per lot on its nickel contract for January 2018 delivery to help stabilise a volatile market, a day after tripling the fee to 18 yuan.
LME NICKEL: Benchmark LME nickel was the biggest decliner in London. It failed to trade in official open outcry activity and was bid down 3.5 percent at $10,620 a tonne after touching $10,505, the weakest since Aug. 16.
FERROUS: Nickel and zinc, both mainly used in the steel sector, were also pressured by losses in Chinese steel prices, which slid to multi-week lows.
Zinc was bid down 0.8 percent at $3,075.
COPPER: Three-month copper dropped to its lowest since Aug. 16, touching $6,366 a tonne, before trimming losses in official rings to $6,450, down 0.5 percent.
CHINA CREDIT: China's attempts to reduce risks from its rapid buildup in debt are not working as quickly as expected and credit growth is still too fast, S&P Global Ratings said on Friday, a day after it downgraded the country's sovereign credit rating.
PRICES: Aluminium traded 0.6 percent weaker at $2,159 in official activity, lead shed 1.3 percent to trade at $2,480 while tin rose 0.9 percent to $20,625.