Taipei  - Japan's Yamaha Corp, the world largest piano manufacturer, will shut its Taiwan plant by the end of July due to high production costs in Taiwan, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Taiwan Yamaha Musical Instrument Co Ltd will close at the end of July, and its workers will be sent away with severance pay, the United Daily News said.

"We can't help it. We now manufacture only about 1,000 pianos per month (compared to 10,000 in the past)," the News quoted Tsai Chen- cheng, Yamaha Taiwan company's sales manager, as saying.

"The Yamaha Corp thinks production cost is too high, so it will shut the Taiwan plant and lay off the workers."

Yamaha agents in Taiwan will continue to sell Yamaha pianos and provide after-sale service to clients, the paper said.

The Yamaha plant, located in Taoyuan County near Taipei, was opened in 1969 as a joint venture between the local partner and the Yamaha Corp, which has links with the Yamaha Motor Corp, producer of Yamaha motorbikes.

The Yamaha Corp was founded by Torakusu Yamaha in 1887 in Hamamatsu, Japan. It produced its first Yamaha piano in 1900 and by 1991 had manufactured 5 million Yamaha pianos.

The Taiwan company is one of Yamaha Corp's overseas plants, which produce Yamaha pianos using materials and technology supplied by the Yamaha Corp.

There are two Yamaha plants in China and one each in Indonesia, Taiwan, Britain and the United States.

At its peak, the Taiwan Yamaha Musical Instrument Co Ltd produced 10,000 pianos per month, which were sold in Taiwan and exported to Japan and other countries. (dpa)