Germany's Metro AG is looking to China to boost sales of consumer electronics. And why not? It's the largest cell phone market, second largest PC market and LCD TVs are catching on fast. Plus, the Chinese seem to be willing to do something a lot of other consumers won't -- spend money.

The quick take is Metro wants to open an electronics store in Shanghai next year. It will partner with a local firm, and open the store under its existing Media Markt brand. Shortly after, it wants to open 12 more stores, then another 300 in the medium term, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Those are some pretty ambitious plans, and will be difficult to carry out, especially if Metro does it organically. It's taken Best Buy six years to build up six stores in China (all in Shanghai), and its two-part (2006, 2009) purchase of the Jiangsu-based Five Star chain added another 161 earlier this year. Best Buy wants to expand to 1000 stories by 2011.

And then there's the deeply entrenched local competition: Gome and Suning, the #1 and #2, respectively. Gome may be reeling from the arrest of its former chairman, who reportedly tried to commit suicide over the long-running corrumption scandal, but the company is still a force in China with 1300 stores. It will look to consolidate some of those stores this year to improve its shrinking bottom line. Suning has 850 stores, and plans to add 200 this year, to build on its momentum and eventually eclipse Gome.

mc