Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is expected to report a 27% fall in second-quarter net profit on Thursday, as global economic woes dent demand for semiconductors, though analysts say business performance is likely to improve in the current quarter. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple and Nvidia supplier, is likely to report net profit for the April-June period of T$172.53 billion ($5.58 billion), down from T$237.0 billion a year earlier, according to the average of 21 analysts polled by Reuters. The forecast decline in profit partly reflects a robust performance in the previous year, when the company was still riding high on pent-up post-pandemic demand.