Rheinmetall, a specialist maker of automotive components and defence equipment, said on Tuesday it is shelving plans to list its car parts division due to the volatile market environment.

"Rheinmetall will not go ahead with an IPO (initial public offering) of KSPG, the parent company of its automotive division, before the summer break," the company said in a statement.

Originally, the listing had been slated for June 30.

"Over the past weeks, capital markets as well as the economic and political situation in the eurozone have not stabilised to a degree necessary for an IPO," it said.

Nevertheless, listing the unit "remains an option which Rheinmetall will review at an appropriate time in the future," it added.

Chief executive Klaus Eberhardt said Rheinmetall "remains confident of KSPG's positive growth potential and its prominent role in the international automotive supplier industry. We are therefore not under time pressure."

KSPG accounts for nearly half of overall group sales and clocked up revenues of 2.3 billion euros ($2.9 billion) last year and 638 million euros in the first three months of this year.

It has 30 production sites in Europe, North America, South America, China and Japan and employs a workforce of 11,500.

The division is in good financial health, but Rheinmetall was hoping to open up its share capital so that it could focus more on its other business area, defence technology.

In the wake of the announcement, Rheinmetall shares were showing a loss of 1.25 percent on the mid-cap MDAX stock index.

Last week, Evonik Industries, a German maker of speciality chemicals, said its management and owners had decided to abandon the group's planned stock exchange listing due to market uncertainty.

According to German media reports, Evonik had set a date of June 25 for its IPO in one of the biggest German stock market listings of recent years.