TAIPEI Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC reported a 23.3% fall in second-quarter net profit on Thursday as global economic woes dented demand for chips used in applications as varied as cars, cellphones and servers and coming off a strong period last year.
While the result beat analyst forecasts, it was the company's first on-year drop in quarterly profit since the second quarter of 2019 when it fell 7.6%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple Inc supplier, saw April-June net profit drop to T$181.8 billion ($5.85 billion) from T$237.0 billion a year earlier.
That compared with the T$172.55 billion average of 21 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
TSMC, Asia's most valuable listed company, said second-quarter revenue dropped 13.7% year-on-year to $15.68 billion, in line with the company's previous forecast.
As the biggest maker of chips that power products as varied as phones, cars and advanced computers, TSMC must navigate an uncertain industry outlook and a U.S.-China chip spat that could make it vulnerable.
TSMC's Taipei-listed shares fell 27.1% in 2022, but are up around 30% so far this year, giving the chipmaker a market value of $486.5 billion. The stock fell 0.3% on Thursday versus a 0.3% rise in the benchmark index.
($1 = 31.0580 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong & Shri Navaratnam)
