Tata Steel today said it has achieved best ever quarterly steel production and sales in the October-December period on the back of record production of crude and hot metal to reach an annual crude steel capacity at 8.35 million tonnes (MT).

"Tata Steel ramped up its production in Q3 FY'13, to reach an annualised run rate of 8.35 million tonnes of Crude Steel," the company said in a statement today.

It said it has achieved "best ever Saleable Steel production of 2.07 million tonnes in a quarter", adding that the previous best production in a quarter was achieved in the preceding quarter.

In second quarter of the current fiscal, it had achieved 1.87 MT of the saleable steel output.

As far as the hot metal and crude steel output were concerned, the steel giant recorded best ever production of these in any quarter, the statement said.

While hot metal production was recorded at 2.28 MT in the third quarter of current fiscal (previous best at 2.07 MT in second quarter 2012-13), the crude steel production stood at 2.09 MT (previous best at 1.93 MT in second quarter 2012-13).

The company said while its merchant mill achieved its best ever quarterly production at 0.104 MT, its wire rod mill also achieved its best ever quarterly production during the period at 1.109 MT.

It also witnessed best-ever flat product sales at 1.087 MT in a quarter against the previous best 1.008 MT in second quarter of 2012-13.

The company added that it commissioned two Lime Kilns and a Coke Battery in December.

The statement said Tata Steel has also won the top prize in the category of large independent companies having turnover greater than Rs 500 crore in the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards assessment this year.

It also received a trophy for the prestigious 2012 Asian MAKE award in area of Knowledge Management.

Set up in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel Group is among the top ten global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of over 26.5 MT per annum.

It is now the world's second-most geographically diversified steel producer, with operations in 26 countries. The Tata Steel group recorded a turnover of $ 26.13 billion in 2011-12.