UPDATE 2-Navios Maritime Holdings Q1 earnings beat estimates

* Q1 EPS $0.12 vs estimate of $0.09

* Lower costs help offset 56 pct fall in rev

* Maintains qtrly dividend of $0.06/shr

* Stock up about 6 pct in pre-market trade (Recasts, add details, stock movement)

May 21 (Reuters) - Greece's dry-bulk carrier Navios Maritime Holdings Inc (NM.N) posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit as lower costs cushioned a 56 percent slump in revenue, sending its shares up about 6 percent in trading before the bell.

Revenue fell mainly due a 39 percent decline in dayrates for its ships under short-term contracts and a 35.5 percent decrease in available days for the fleet.

The drybulk shipping sector has been hit hard as the global recession strangled demand for commodities such a iron ore, coal and food grains that these shippers help transport.

However, energy and operating costs have also come down along with a fall in commodity prices across the board.

As such, Navios' time charter, voyage and logistic business expenses fell 69 percent to $91.8 million.

This helped the company post a net income available to common shareholders of $12 million, or 12 cents a share, for the first quarter, compared with $14.2 million, or 13 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts were expecting a profit of 9 cents a share, excluding items, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue for the period more than halved to $147.2 million, and was below analysts' consensus estimate of $183.2 million.

Navios maintained its quarterly dividend of 6 cents a share.

Navios shares, which have traded in a range of $1.10 to $14.17 in the last one year, were trading at $4.98 in before the bell. They closed at $4.72 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Hezron Selvi and Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor and Deepak Kannan)