Slowing smartphone demand hits TSMC hard

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co posted its third straight quarterly earnings fall as decelerating smartphone demand eroded its bottom line and a February earthquake held up production.

The world's largest contract maker of microchips reported an 18 percent fall in first-quarter net income to NT$64.8 billion ($2 billion), compared with the NT$65.8 billion that analysts expected on average. The February temblor in southern Taiwan had prompted the company to cut margin forecasts that month.

TSMC, which competes with Samsung Electronics Co to make processors for Apple Inc, is grappling with the most pronounced slowdown in global mobile demand on record.