* Says profit this year will be "slightly ahead"
* Benefits from stronger truck sales in the US
* Looks to grow batteries business (Adds company, analyst quote, shares)
By Silvia Antonioli
LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Johnson Matthey expectshigher earnings this year after the speciality chemicals companyincreased first-half profits due to stronger sales of itsproducts that help to make cars more environmentally friendly.
The company said tighter environmental legislation wasmainly responsible for boosting sales in Europe and Asia of itsautocatalysts, which control car emissions. Growth in carproduction and truck sales also helped.
"Our growth is going to be driven by car production growthin certain areas such as Asia and North America," financedirector Den Jones said. "And our customers in Europe are doingbetter than others so we are benefiting from that," he said."Truck sales in North America are also doing well."
Johnson Matthey, the world's largest autocatalyst maker,said it expected its performance in the current financial yearwould be slightly ahead of last year.
In June, the company had expected flat profits, due to theimpact of a stronger pound and the end of a long-standingpurchasing deal with platinum producer Anglo American Platinum.
The strength of sterling against other currencies cut itsfirst-half profit by 16 million pounds.
Bank of America said Johnson Matthey was well-positioned tobenefit from likely above GDP growth in the catalysts business."We re-iterate our Buy rating, seeing premium earnings per sharegrowth against the sector as a function of a continuing strongsecular growth trajectory in emission regulations."
The London-listed company, which also refines and recyclesplatinum group metals, reported an underlying pretax profit of216.4 million pounds ($338.6 million) for the half year to theend of September, up 2 percent from last year and ahead of acompany-provided analyst consensus of 206.7 million.
Although the largest chunk of the company's revenue comesfrom autocatalysts currently, Johnson Matthey is looking to growother areas such as batteries technology.
It has agreed to buy two battery materials businesses in thelast two months, betting on an increase in demand for batteriesin hybrid and electric vehicles.
Its shares, up about 4 percent by 0909 GMT, were among thebiggest gainers in the FTSE-100 index which was down 0.4percent.
Johnson Matthey had average return on equity of 23 percentin the last 12 months, more than double that of its peers.
(1 US dollar = 0.6391 British pound) (Editing by Mark Potter, Clara Ferreira Marques and JaneMerriman)