A decrease in new car registrations in Germany during June has caused industry association VDA to lower its sales forecast for 2004.

While registrations for the month were up four per cent year-on-year, they were down six per cent on the previous month to 310,000 vehicles.

According to just-auto.com, which cites reports by the news agency Reuters, VDA now expects new car registrations in Germany to remain static in 2004 at 3.24 million units.

Bernd Gottschalk, VDA president, commented: "We now expect a stagnant domestic market for this year compared to last, but we haven't written off 2004 yet however."

VDA had predicted growth of three per cent over the year, which would have taken sales to 3.35 million.

However, VDA expressed mild optimism for the rest of the year, citing positive economic conditions, the launch of new car models and signs of a stabilisation in oil prices.

Changes in vehicle production levels may affect the volume of platinum bought by the auto industry, which uses it in the production of autocatalysts.