UPDATE 1-Crown Holdings Q1 earnings rise, top Wall St

* Q1 EPS 25 cents vs estimate of 21 cents

* Sales down 10 pct, largely due to currency translation

SAN FRANCISCO, April 15 (Reuters) - Crown Holdings Inc (CCK.N), one of the world's largest makers of food and beverage cans, posted a higher first-quarter profit on Wednesday as demand for canned food rose due to the global economic slowdown.

The company also said it had recovered some price increases for steel tinplate used in food and aerosol cans, while improving operating efficiencies.

Net income for the quarter was $40 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with $27 million, or 17 cents a share, last year.

Sales fell to $1.68 billion from $1.86 billion, primarily because of a $189 million impact from foreign currency translation.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 21 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $1.91 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

"Historically, times of economic recession have tended to increase sales of canned food, as consumers curb their 'out of home' eating activity," Olivier Aubry, a vice president at Crown Food Europe, told Reuters in an interview last month. [ID:nLG126495]

Shares of the Philadelphia-based company are up 14 percent in the last three months, while the Standard and Poor's 1500 Containers and Packaging Index .15GSPCOP is down about 1 percent.

The stock closed at $22.47 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. In the past 52 weeks, the shares have traded in a range of $29.60 and $13.43. (Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco and Hezron Selvi in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)