FRANKFURT - BASF eked out a 0.6% gain in adjusted second-quarter earnings as slightly higher sales volumes made up for lower chemical prices but confirmed full-year goals of faster growth as it banks on regaining pricing power.

In a statement on Friday, the group said second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for one-offs, rose to 1.96 billion euros ($2.13 billion), slightly below the average analyst estimate of 2.05 billion in a consensus posted on the company's website.

The chemicals giant said it saw volume growth in specialty products for industrial customers, basic chemicals as well as ingredients for food and household products, but its agriculture unit, which competes with Bayer, saw a worse-than-expected slump in profit.

BASF confirmed its forecast for 2024 EBITDA before special items to reach between 8 billion euros and 8.6 billion euros, up from 7.7 billion reported in 2023.

"Our forecast assumes a certain improvement in pricing power in the second half of the year," said new BASF CEO Markus Kamieth, who took the helm in April.

The group, which has been investing heavily in making battery chemicals, also said it was putting on hold plans to build a large battery recycling site in Spain because of much slower adoption of electric vehicles (EV) outside of China.

CEO Kamieth said he saw the shift towards EVs continuing in the longer term, but BASF would only add capacities if established battery cell makers committed to purchasing chemicals.

BASF and its partner Eramet of France last month cancelled a $2.6 billion joint investment in a refining complex in Indonesia to make nickel and cobalt for batteries. ($1 = 0.9211 euros)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Rachel More and Tomasz Janowski)