The economy is certainly struggling with foreclosures skyrocketing, automakers facing the very real prospect of bankruptcy and consumers holding their money rather than spending. Amid this financial turmoil, SanDisk has announced that it will temporarily reduce its Flash wafer production in its venture with Toshiba in Japan.

SanDisk and Toshiba announced today that the firms were halting production of Flash wafers in Fab 3 and Fab 4 from December 31sy to January 12th. After the shutdown, the Fabs will resume production at 70% of their previous capacity.

The reduction in production at the two Fabs will result in a higher wafer cost from the venture die to underutilization of the facilities but will realign SanDisk's and Toshiba's output to global demand. Toshiba blames the reduction on a soft global economy and reduced demand for NAND flash memories.

Via SanDisk