The news release announcing the third quarter 2013 results will be disseminated on 6 November 2013 after the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited market closes.

The high wafer shipment growth recorded by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in August and September indicates that global IC suppliers are not pessimistic about their business outlook and will not cut significantly their wafer start orders for the fourth quarter of 2013, according to industry watchers.

Despite warning of a possible overly build-ups of inventory in the IC industry in the fourth quarter of 2013 or in early 2014 by TSMC chairman Morris Chang, most IC vendors have continued to take wafer deliveries from the foundry house, the sources noted.

TSMC collected revenues of NT$162.6 billion (US$5.54 billion) for the third quarter of 2013, hitting a record and meeting its guidance of NT$161-164 billion.

The strong wafer shipment growth also indicates that demand in the end-device market has been growing faster than expected, alleviating concerns that the inventory dates and volumes would mount up over the industry's averages by year-end 2013, commented the sources.

With the approach of year-end holiday season as well as the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays, IC suppliers are expected to land more IC orders from hardware devices vendors, and therefore will not slow down their orders for wafer starts at TSMC in the fourth quarter, said the sources.

IC backend service companies STATS ChipPAC Taiwan and Sigurd Microelectronics have received a handful of orders that will help them sustain strong revenues in the third quarter of 2013, according to industry sources.

Continued orders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and turnkey testing orders from its parent company will help STATS ChipPAC Taiwan to maintain its sales momentum in the third quarter, the sources noted.

STATS ChipPAC Taiwan posted revenues of NT$146 million (US$4.92 million) for August, representing an increase of 7.4% on the previous month and the company's highest monthly figures in the past 10 months.

STATS ChipPAC Taiwan is expected to see its revenues expand 23-25% sequentially in the third quarter, while maintaining a gross margin of 48%, the sources estimated.

Sigurd saw its revenues hit a record high of NT$475 million in August, thanks to testing orders for dual- and quad-core solutions from MediaTek, the sources pointed out.

Sigurd's orders from clients in the US and Japan have been steady recently, which will enable the company to keep its capacity utilization rate running higher in the third quarter, said the sources.

STATS ChipPAC Ltd said on late Monday that it has successfully reached a further insurance settlement of about US$19.6 million, that will be recognized as exceptional gain in the third quarter 2013 results.

This will increase adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the third quarter 2013 by the same amount. The adjusted EBITDA excludes the restructuring, plant closure and associated charges related to its announced plan for the Malaysia plant.

It is in addition to the US$26.7 million obtained in October 2012 as compensation for plant and equipment damages