taipei april 18 reuters  taiwanese chipmaker tsmc 2330tw is expected to post a 5 fall in firstquarter net profit on thursday with global economic woes denting demand for semiconductors used in everything from cars to advanced computing extending into the current quarter taiwan semiconductor manufacturing co ltd tsmc  the worlds largest contract chipmaker and a major apple inc aaplo supplier is likely to report net profit for the januarymarch period of t1925 billion 630 billion down from t2027 billion a year earlier according to the average of 21 analysts polled by reuters looking ahead into the second quarter which is typically a slow season tsmcs sales on a quarterly basis will be under pressure from inventory adjustments as major clients cut back on orders said alex huang who manages about t5 billion for capital investment trust corp but momentum may pick up as early as the third quarter he added corresponding with the improved outlooks for that quarter projected by apple nvidia corp nvdao and advanced micro devices inc amdo some of tsmcs biggest customers tsmc asias most valuable listed company has forecast demand will recover in the second half of this year it will provide guidance for the second quarter and update previous forecasts on its earnings call at 0600 gmt on thursday tsmc already reported its first quarter revenue of t50863 billion 1669 billion at the bottom of a january forecast range of 167 billion to 175 billion compared to 1757 billion for the yearago period tsmc said in january its capital spending in 2023 would decrease to between 32 billion and 36 billion from 363 billion in 2022 the companys concentration of production in taiwan at a time of growing military tensions with china which claims the island as its own territory has spooked some investors us billionaire warren buffett last week called tsmc a fabulous company but said it faced risks because of its location buffetts investment conglomerate berkshire hathaway inc brkan bought more than 41 billion of tsmcs shares between july and september 2022 but in february said it had sold 86 of its stake by yearend tsmcs taipeilisted stock has risen by around 16 so far this year outperforming the broader market twii which is up 13 reporting by faith hung and ben blanchard editing by jamie freed