Yingli Green Energy Holding Co.'s (YGE) plans to sell more solar panels to Chinese customers this year than to Europeans, making its home country the company's top customer, Chairman and Chief Executive Miao Liansheng said Friday.

Around 35% of Yingli's solar panels will stay in China compared with 22% last year, while European customers will take 30% of the company's output, down from 57% in 2011.

Although the U.S. only receives about 10% of Yingli's solar panels, the Chinese manufacturer recently signed contracts to buy materials from U.S. companies valued around $2 billion during a recent U.S. visit by Xi Jinping, who is widely considered next in line to be China 's president.

Yingli made deals with four U.S. companies, including a $100-million deal with Dupont to buy photovoltaic materials and a $1.6 billion seven-year contract to buy silicon materials from Hemlock Semiconductor Group, Miao said.

The deals exceed the value of Yingli's exports to the U.S., he said, hinting that it is ironic that the U.S. Commerce Department is considering whether to impose antidumping tariffs on imports of Chinese solar products when trade is already balanced in the U.S.'s favor.

The pending ruling "is causing chain effects in Europe and India , making it difficult for us to sell products to them," he said, adding that Yingli and its upstream as well as downstream partners are strongly opposed to any punitive duties.

In 2011, Yingli swung to a loss of $509.8 million due to a global oversupply of solar panels, tighter credit conditions due to the European financial crisis and cuts to renewable energy subsidies in key client countries, according to Matthew Li, associate director of investor relations at Yingli. Despite a difficult market, Yingli still boosted shipments of solar panels by 50% to 1,603.8 megawatts, he said.

The company is anticipating stronger demand in 2012, and expects to boost shipments this year to between 2,400 and 2,500 MW, up more than 50% from 2011.

Yingli is targeting regions in emerging markets including the Middle East and Africa , Miao said. The company also recently established offices in Mexico , Brazil and Chile --adding to eight other offices around the world.

To meet higher demand, Yingli plans boost its total manufacturing capacity by 750 megawatts to at least 2,450 megawatts in 2012, company executives said.
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