India’s state-owned iron ore miner NMDC says that it has seen record performances in reporting its third quarter results for the 2015 financial year. A fall in iron ore sales volume during Q3 did not however affect production, turnover and profit before tax, all of which grew during the period, Kallanish observes.

The miner increased iron ore production year-on-year by over 11%, to 8.11 million tonnes in Q3 15, a third quarter record, whilst sales volumes decreased to 6.97mt, a -5% fall y-on-y. The company offered no reason for this and turnover was not affected, growing by 4% to INR 2,946 crore ($477.2m) in the quarter.

Year-to-date performance also produced some records, NMDC says. Turnover, sales volumes and production output were all the best ever for the first 9 months of a financial year, the company confirms.

FY 2016 will be a busy one for the company. 40% of construction activities at NMDC’s new 3 million tonne/year steel plant at Nagarnar have now been completed and “…all the works of major packages are being taken up on war footing”, the miner says. Kumaraswamy Iron Ore Mine is likely to be commissioned by end of Q2 16 and a 1.2m t/y capacity pellet plant at Donimalai in Karnataka is likely to be commissioned by Q1 16.

Total income from operations for Q3 15 grew by 4% to INR 2,946 crore which generated an after-tax profit of INR 1593 crore, itself 2% up y-on-y.