Steel prices are set to jump by up to 66 per cent this year, top executives and analysts have said, a burst of inflation on a scale the industry has suffered just once in the past 70 years.

In a set of forecasts provided for the Financial Times by 16 steel experts around the world – including six chief executives and 10 industry analysts – projections of the year-on-year rise in prices by the end of 2011 average 32 per cent.

That would make the price of the average grade of steel as defined by Meps, a UK steel consultancy, $970 per tonne by December.

If this turns out to be correct, the rise in steel prices during the year will be the second-biggest jump since modern records began in the 1940s.

The largest increase so far, according to Meps data, was the 70 per cent rise in 2004, when steel demand was moving up quickly as the world economy went through a big expansion.

业内高管和分析师预计，钢铁价格今年将至多上涨66%，这种涨幅在过去70年内仅经历过一次。

在全球16位钢铁行业专家——其中包括6位首席执行官和10位该行业分析师——为英国《金融时报》提供的一组预测中，对2011年年底钢铁价格同比涨幅的平均预期为32%。

以此推算，在今年12月份，英国钢铁业咨询公司Meps定义的平均等级钢铁价格将涨至每吨970美元。

如果上述预测成真今年钢铁价格的涨幅，将是上世纪40年代开始现代记录以来的第二高涨幅。

Meps的数据显示，迄今为止最大的涨幅当属2004年的70%，当时，随着世界经济大规模扩张，钢铁需求迅速上升。

过去两个月，基础钢铁价格上涨了33%，原因是铁矿石和炼焦煤价格大幅上涨。