Raipur, Aug 4 : Mining major NMDC Ltd, India's largest iron ore producer, has recorded a sharp rise in overall production and sales in July 2020 as compared to the corresponding period in July 2019, despite the pandemic, a company statement said on Tuesday. NMDC Ltd has been able to achieve excellent physical performance through its continual push towards higher volumes which saw production of 2.19 MT and sales of 2.57 MT that grew by 13 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively, over the corresponding period last year, despite the current uncertain situation due to Covid-19, the Navaratna PSU said in a statement. In July 2020, the Chhattisgarh Projects registered a production of 1.56 million tonnes as compared to the total production of 1.16 million tonnes in the corresponding month of July last year, marking an increase of 35 per cent in production. NMDC Ltd also achieved record sales in July 2020 by selling 1.90 million tonnes of iron ore, an amount 20 per cent higher than 1.60 million tonnes in July 2019. Sumit Deb, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of NMDC Ltd, said that "the last few months has been quite challenging for the entire industry due to the pandemic situation impacting the performance of all major producers. However, this challenge was treated as an opportunity by us to accelerate our efforts towards stabilising the production". "Going forward, NMDC will strive to maximise cost efficiencies to improve its bottom-line," he added. /IANS