FRANKFURT, June 8, 2009 (AFP) - German luxury car makers Audi, BMW and Daimler unveiled contrastingly weak sales figures on Monday as relatively good news was reported for German industry in general.

BMW said sales of its brands, which include Mini and Rolls-Royce, shed 18.3 percent in May on a 12-month basis, a figure that was nonetheless better than April's drop of 24 percent.

Daimler's Mercedes-Benz division said May sales were off by 12.4 percent, but that was almost half the loss of nearly 24 percent reported in April.

Audi limited its losses to 6.1 percent in May compared with the same month a year earlier, a statement said.

Volkswagen's high-end auto brand therefore continued to fare better than its rivals, but the result was still a deterioration from Audi's fall of 5.6 percent in April.

For the first five months of 2009, BMW delivered 487,906 vehicles, or 21.1 percent fewer than in the same period of 2008.

Mercedes-Benz sold 433,100 cars, which was also a drop of 21.1 percent.

Audi sold 374,350 cars, for a more modest decline of 12.1 percent.

"I am globally optimistic concerning an improvement in our sales throughout the year," BMW sales director Ian Robertson was quoted by a statement as saying.

Audi counterpart Peter Schwarzenbauer added that his company noted interest in core A3, A4 and A5 models equipped with four and six-cylinder engines.

Meanwhile, the German economy ministry revised its figure for March industrial orders higher to a rise of 3.7 percent, the first increase in six months, and added that April orders had stayed at the same level.

The figures demonstrated a "noticeable improvement in the medium-term perspective" for German industries, according to a ministry statement.