Toshiba and SanDisk temporarily slash NAND Flash production by 30% in Yokkaichi

Despite the fact that folks will still be snapping up digital cameras, DAPs / PMPs and additional storage this holiday season, SanDisk and Toshiba don't see demand being anywhere near optimal. The pair, which are linked via a joint venture production plant in Yokkaichi, Japan, have decided it best to temporarily reduce NAND Flash output by around 30%. Here's the scary part: "the duration and extent of this reduction in fab output will depend upon market conditions." You guys are all going to feel really goofy when consumers realize they simply can't live without their constant flow of semiconductors and decorated Segways here in a few months -- just sayin'.

[Via EETimes]

Read - Toshiba's take
Read - SanDisk's take

[Tim @ Dec 16th 2008 12:42AM]

Anyone else think that was a circuit board/memory chip for a second?

[who? @ Dec 16th 2008 12:47AM]

Hellz YEAH!

[insky60 @ Dec 16th 2008 1:12AM]

I didn't realize it wasn't a circuit board until you mentoned it.

[Jack Storm @ Dec 16th 2008 1:15AM]

if its not, then what is it?!?

[AJ in the East Bay @ Dec 16th 2008 1:45AM]

@Jack Storm: I guess it's a picture of the NAND factory. Like others, I thought it was a circuit board.

[ED @ Dec 16th 2008 2:06AM]

For a moment, yes. Glad I'm not alone in this. I was planning on posting about it and was amused to see it as the topic of the first post.

[who? @ Dec 16th 2008 2:12AM]

We were all so naive... They're just pretending to be a factory. It's really a giant, one-trillion terabyte flash drive! :D

[neofolklore @ Dec 16th 2008 10:35AM]

haha I always check the comments just to see if anyone else thought what I was thinking :)


its like an "I Spy" MMO

[Daren @ Feb 13th 2009 2:20AM]

Nice discovery! I did not realize until you mention too! The photo looks like a building prototype though.

[JorgenMan @ Dec 16th 2008 12:49AM]

"Optimal" demand, of course, would be that everybody in the world wants to buy a million chips every day. No, wait, a billion. No, wait...

[PLASTIC COCK @ Dec 16th 2008 1:05AM]

im just trying to be friends here. stop bullying me

[jesse @ Dec 16th 2008 1:11AM]

maybe has somehting to do with netbooks and ssd(s)

[kingofwale @ Dec 16th 2008 1:17AM]

what is this?? Semi-conductor Cartel?

[Andrew Hillman Dallas TX @ Dec 16th 2008 1:18AM]

not a big suprise ! Everything is slowing down!!!

[Daren @ Feb 13th 2009 2:22AM]

A total of 2 Intel assembly lines has just announced to stop operation in my place! The semocon industry is getting a big hit.

[linuxamp @ Dec 16th 2008 1:30AM]

Just like OPEC, they're trying to use supply side controls to affect the price of flash. Makes sense though. I can buy 8GB of flash for less than what I spent on lunch today.

[Gfxlonghorn @ Dec 16th 2008 1:55AM]

15 dollar lunch... ooooh aren't we the talk of the town.

[linuxamp @ Dec 16th 2008 2:40AM]

@Gfxlonghorn
Not elitist, I only spent ~$12 (8GB USB < $12 http://snurl.com/8dkua) and that's only because food is expensive in my country and the USD is so very low right now.

[blah @ Dec 16th 2008 2:46AM]

unlike opec though, flash memory is not a necessity so cutting production will not work. in fact in the oligopolistic market of flash, toshiba and sandisk will be worse off

[rems @ Dec 16th 2008 1:48AM]

Then again piling up stocks if they don't sell doesn't really help but when the time will come they will be back (which I think they already have a date, not willing to share with us, maybe not precise but sharp enough to and flexible enough so that they don't get trapped) and producing enough with more performance for market needs...

[0megapart!cle @ Dec 16th 2008 1:56AM]

Glad I'm not the only one that sees the true intent here. OSPC (Organization of Semiconductor Producing Companies), here we come.

[Adderz @ Dec 16th 2008 1:59AM]

The way i understand it, to overcome this "recession" is for regular consumers to spend money..so why are the media enforcing that we are infact in a recession, thus instilling fear into everyone, making them clutch there wallets tightly to their chest?

This is obviously a very simply view on the matter, but yeah....*twitches eye*

Oh wait, when talking about the economy i have to include the obligatory, its time for change OBAMA!!11

[Arran @ Dec 16th 2008 5:33AM]

That crossed my mind a few weeks ago. I just came to the assumption that the companies that will profit from the "recession" are linked to, or are, the companies that own the news outlets/media. Some people still don't realise that propaganda isn't just something that you learned about in high school history class about WW1 & 2. "Ramblings of a conspiricy! If they call is a conspiricy that means it's not true!"

[Johan S @ Dec 16th 2008 4:13AM]

OPEC

This move is like what OPEC does, collude and deliberately cut production knowing that a competitor cannot emerge quickly enough to compete and supply to consumers.

[henryj @ Dec 16th 2008 9:26AM]

The semiconductor industry is tanking. Most companies are about to go brankrupt (like infineon, qimonda, nanya, elpida, etc) and are asking for government bailouts.

Basically, they say that there is an oversupply of memory on the market because consumers did not adopt Vista. The oversupply has driven the price below what it costs to manufacture.

[kal326 @ Dec 16th 2008 10:36AM]

So much for SSD drives getting cheaper. What they really should do instead of cutting production back 30% is start cranking out SSD drives on the cheap. Idling a factory or slowing down production from optimal levels isn't free. So why not take the opportunity to go gang busters in the SSD market with cheap drives. SSD drives start being more price competitive more people will buy them or buy them over platter drives. May not be a sustainable business plan, but evidently what they have been doing has been working either. And at the end of the day if we all get good, cheap, fast SSD drives, it's that whats really important?

[meta-fm @ Dec 17th 2008 6:19AM]

And I though the reason why SSD were so expensive was because those companies couldn't keep up supply the SSD demand ;)

[jim @ Dec 18th 2008 2:47AM]

They actually are just hoping to drive the price of flash memory up, they have been complaining for months about it being to low.