Engineering firm Weir Group this morning said it had won a £36m contract to provide energy saving solutions to iron ore firm Ferrexpo.

The contract win came as the FTSE 100 firm said that it was on track to deliver profit in line with market expectations this year.

Read more: Weir Group revenues stable after pivot away from oil and gas

The deal with Swiss firm Ferrexpo will see Weir provide equipment such as grinding rolls for its mining operations.

For the first quarter, the firm, which was recently promoted back to London’s blue chip index after a 10 year absence, said it had been helped by record commodity prices.

The Scottish firm benefitted particularly from higher prices for gold and copper, which remain close to multi-year highs.

It added that its order book was up 11 per cent for the period, driven by a two-thirds increase in original equipment orders.

Chief executive Jon Stanton said: “The group has had a good start to the year against the backdrop of ongoing Covid challenges.

“As expected, conditions continued to improve in both mining and infrastructure markets reflecting increasing customer confidence in a broad-based economic recovery and near record prices for commodities essential to growth and carbon transition.

“This was reflected in continued positive development in our project pipeline and improving order conversion of our early cycle product lines and technologies that deliver significant sustainability benefits.”

Before the Open: Get the jump on the markets with our early morning newsletter