SHANGHAI, China - China's overcrowded consumer electronics market will get yet a new dose of competition when U.S. retailer Best Buy opens its first outlet in China, likely by year-end.

Best Buy Co. is teaming up with local partner Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co., China's No. 4 appliance and consumer electronics retailer, in opening a store in Shanghai's busy Xujiahui shopping district.

"We will open the first store hopefully toward the end of the year by December," Robert Willett, chief executive officer of a Best Buy unit called Best Buy International, told reporters Tuesday.

"But we're only going to open when it's right," he said. "This is not a race."

Best Buy, the biggest U.S. consumer electronics retailer, is only one of scores of foreign retailers taking advantage of a lifting of limits on foreign competition to try to woo consumers in the world's biggest potential market.

Despite intense local competition in the lower segments of the market, foreign brands dominate in malls and shopping centers aimed at the country's fast-growing middle class, who are able and willing to pay a bit more for better service and quality.

Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minn., announced in May that it paid $180 million for a majority stake in Jiangsu Five Star, giving it an immediate presence in Asia's fastest growing market.

China is also one of Asia's most saturated markets, where appliance retailers and manufacturers compete amid brutal price wars.

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