New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS): The country's largest iron ore producer NMDC has reported a 53 per cent jump in its net profit in the October-December quarter on the back of smart recovery in both production and sales that beat market expectations on account of disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic.

Accordingly, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2,109 crore in the third quarter of FY21 against Rs 1,376 crore during Q3 of 2019-20.

NMDC's turnover during the 3rd quarter of 2020-21 stood at Rs 4,355 crore as against the turnover of Rs 3,006 crore of the corresponding period last year (CPLY) which is a 45 per cent increase. The turnover in this quarter is the best ever for any quarter for NMDC since inception, the company said in a statement.

NMDC produced 9.60 million tonnes (MT) and sold 9.28 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore in the third quarter of FY21. Despite COVID induced adversities, iron ore production and sales figures for the nine months of the financial year 2020-21 are at par with nine months of the previous financial year, the statement said.

Sumit Deb, CMD, NMDC expressed satisfaction at the overall results and said, "We have realigned our strategy to focus on optimum utilization of resources. The various steps undertaken to reduce costs, improve output and maximize profitability have led us to bounce back after initial set back in Q1 due to COVID-19 pandemic and set new records in this quarter. We are positive that we will continue to excel with the growing raw material demand from the steel sector and create new benchmarks."