GLASGOW-based Weir Group has ramped up its exposure to the international mining and aggregates businesses by acquiring an equipment supplier in a $220 million (£138m) deal.

The purchase of Shanghai-based Trio Engineered products will allow Weir to increase its share of target markets in the US and China and in countries such as Australia.

Keith Cochrane, chief executive of Weir Group, noted the acqusition will allow Weir to grow its comminution, or rock crushing and separation, business.

The deal comes months after Weir was rebuffed for a second time by Metso, following a £3.7bn bid for the Finnish comminution specialist.

Mr Cochrane added: "We'll use our Group's unrivalled global capability to promote Trio's range of complementary products, extending our addressable market and offering our mining customers a wider range of highly engineered equipment and services."

He said Trio's manufacturing capability in China and the US and its scale in aggregates markets provides a further growth platform.

Weir said it expects the acquisition to provide a boost to earnings in the first full year before integration costs.

Analysts at house broker UBS described the purchase as a "a sensible minerals bolt-on acquisition".

However, Weir is upping its investment in mining although the boom that was triggered by strong demand for metals like iron in China seems to be easing.

In a note on Weir Group produced earlier this week, analysts at Investec Securities said suppliers could find prices falling significantly as mining companies look to cut costs.

Yesterday Investec analysts told clients they saw the deal as a sensibly valued bolt-on that increases Weir's ability to compete against Metso. But, they added: "Unfortunately the small positive impact of this deal may be lost against the significant headwinds of a falling oil price, a lower US gas price and further pricing pressure from the mining majors."

Weir supplies pumps and the like for oil and gas firms and has a big position in the US shale market.

Yesterday analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut their forecast for the Brent crude price in 2015 to $98 per barrel from $108/bbl, amid strong supplies.

In a BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research report they wrote: "Brent oil prices have come off sharply in recent weeks and are now at 2010 levels. The main driver for the drop, in our view, has come from the supply side. As Libya started to ramp up oil output, Saudi Arabia failed to react. Did Saudi simply 'forget' to turn off the taps or are we facing a 'new normal' for oil?"

The analysts cut their 2015 forecast for the US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, to $90/bbl from $96/bbl. But Weir Group said the Trio acquisition would deliver significant benefits.

Directors have expressed confidence in the long term prospects for industries like mining and oil and gas.

Weir said the acquisition will give it access to Trio's manufacturing expertise and opportunities to cross sell products and services like maintenance to its customers.

The acquisition will be funded from existing bank facilities.

Integration costs are expected to total US$10m over a two-year period.

Trio is expected to generate revenues of around $120m in 2014, with operating profit margins broadly in-line with Weir's Minerals division.

Weir is buying Trio from the Asia-focused Navis Capital investment operation and Trio's management team. Trio's three founders have agreed to stay on after the deal.

Shares in Weir Group closed down 91p, 4.1 per cent, at £22.13.