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NMDC Record Revenue of ₹11,173 Crore: Volume Story, Not Price
NMDC posted record Q4 revenue of ₹11,173 crore, up 61% YoY, driven by volume. Average realisations slipped 5%. The read-through for steel and mining peers depends on whether volume growth can offset price softness.
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NMDC Limited, India's largest iron ore miner, posted its highest-ever quarterly revenue from operations for Q4 FY2025-2026 on Friday. The figure of ₹11,173 crore represents a 61% jump over the same quarter last year. The earnings report lines up a single question for anyone tracking Indian steel inputs: is this a volume story, a price story, or both? The answer determines how the read-through applies to other names in the mining and ferrous supply chain.
The headline number came on the back of record Q4 iron ore production of 162.72 lakh tonnes (LT), up 22% year-on-year, and record quarterly sales of 152.99 LT, a 21% increase. Full-year revenue for FY26 hit ₹31,554 crore, a 33% rise from the previous year and a high above the FY22 record of ₹25,965 crore.
The Read-Through Is Not Purely Volume-Driven
The naive take: NMDC sold more ore, so the sector is benefitting from a mining ramp. The practical take is that average iron ore sales realization slipped 5% to ₹4,759 per tonne. Revenue growth was volume-led, not price-led. That matters for peer companies. Any improvement in topline from SAIL, Vedanta, or Odisha-based private miners likely requires shipment growth to compensate for softer realisations.
NMDC's EBITDA for the quarter came in at ₹3,072 crore, up 21% from a year ago. PAT rose 35% to ₹2,020 crore. The margin compression from lower realisations was partially offset by higher volume and a shift in sales mix.
The President of India holds 60.79% of NMDC. LIC is the second-largest shareholder at 4.89%. No analyst call or forward guidance was provided in the release.
The 690% Jump in Other Sales
The most telling line in the release is the "Other Sales" category. That line rose 690% year-on-year to ₹6,831 crore for FY26. The company has not broken out the components in this statement. The likely drivers are pellet sales and trading operations. NMDC has been increasing its pellet capacity, and the category surge suggests it is monetising that vertical.
What this means for pellet producers: If the jump reflects higher pellet volumes, companies like KIOCL and JSW Steel (through captive pellet capacity) will face comparable questions about volume versus margin. Pellet premiums over benchmark ore are determined by seaborne supply and Chinese steel production. When a state-owned miner expands pellet throughput, it adds supply to the domestic market, which could compress margins at private pellet plants.
Full-Year Record and the Volume Ceiling
Full-year iron ore production hit 531.58 LT, a 21% rise and a new all-time high. Sales reached 502.39 LT, up 13%. Annual PBT grew 9% to ₹10,155 crore and PAT rose 11% to ₹7,421 crore.
Key insight: Record production of 531.58 LT implies NMDC is running near its current mine capacity. The next leg of volume growth depends on environmental clearances for new mines and rail connectivity from Chhattisgarh to steel plants. Without those, future volume gains will be incremental, not exponential.