TAIPEI, April 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker, on Thursday posted an 18 percent fall in first-quarter net profit, missing expectations due to lower revenue and an earthquake which hurt margins.
TSMC had cut its guidance for margins following a Feb. 6 earthquake that hit the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, where TSMC has manufacturing plants.
The Apple Inc supplier and bellwether for global tech demand said 64 percent of its revenue in the first quarter came from communication applications, which includes chips used in smartphones, a slight rise from the fourth quarter of last year.
Its net income in the January-March period totalled T$64.78 billion ($2.00 billion), down just over 11 percent from the final three months of 2015 and short of analysts' average estimate of T$65.65 billion, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
First-quarter revenue, reported earlier, fell 8.3 percent to T$203.5 billion, in line with the company's guidance.
($1 = 32.4280 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Stephen Coates)