Taiwan's TSMC Q3 net profit up 62 pct, beats forecasts

TAIPEI Oct 25 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) reported a better-than-expected 62 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Thursday, as robust sales of tablets and smartphones kept its cutting-edge chips in demand.

Net profit for the world's biggest contract chipmaker in the July-September period was T$49.3 billion ($1.68 billion), above the T$45.32 billion average estimate of 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The figure compares with T$41.81 billion in the second quarter and T$30.40 billion for the same quarter a year ago.

TSMC's clients include Texas Instruments and Nvidia . ($1 = 29.2845 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)