Honda says PHL sales up 5% in April, but down 27% in 1^st four mos.

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) sold 1,186 units last April, up 5 percent from 1,128 a year earlier, the company said Tuesday.   In an e-mail to reporters, HCPI group head of marketing and sales division Mitch Malto said the company sold 58 more units than it did in April 2011.   Honda City accounted for more than half of the cars sold last month, particularly the 1.5-liter automatic version, said Malto.   "The Civic and CR-V also registered 65-percent and 119-percent sales increase in April, respectively, due to their full model change introduction," she noted.   But sales in the first four months fell 27 percent to 3,510 units from 4,823 year-on-year, as the Japanese carmaker continued to reel from the impact of natural calamities in Japan and Thailand last year that disrupted the cars and parts supply chain, Malto added.   Tatsuya Natsume, company president, said earlier the company is poised to recover this year and even announced that it will resume its importation of parts and vehicles from Thailand by the middle of this year after production in that Southeast Asian country returned to normal last March 26.   HCPI in February resumed the importation of knocked-down parts of the Civic model from Thailand for its assembly plant in Santa Rosa, Laguna.   Last March, Honda sold 1,631 units–its highest in 20 months. —VS, GMA News