Weir Group Plc, a British maker of pumps and valves, said today that it expects higher first half profits as it has performed strongly in the first quarter of the year ended April 2, 2010. The group said that it had reported an increase in its operating profit and margins for the first quarter.

Weir announced today that the order input was reported up by 16% in the first quarter of the year comparing to the same period last year. The company also reported a 19% increase in its aftermarket orders in Q1.

The company said that the order input in its Minerals and original equipment segments was reported up by 30% and 38% respectively for the first three months of the year.

The order input in oil & gas segment was reported up by 4% with upstream input up 74% in the first 13 weeks of the fiscal. The power & industrial segment recorded a decline of 16% in its order input for the first quarter.

Weir said that the strong first quarter performance was mainly attributable to the higher aftermarket sales in the period. Weir also said that now it expects a pretax profit of £30 million for the first half of the year, ahead of previous its expectations.