HSN Hansen Tran.

The head of Suzlon Energy Ltd., one of the world's biggest wind-turbine makers, voiced frustration at the difficulty foreign companies face in trying to win contracts in China's booming market, but said he hopes the situation will improve in the next several years.

In an interview, Suzlon Chairman Tulsi Tanti also said he believes the wind-turbine business globally has turned a corner after a difficult period and that the company's worldwide sales are likely to start growing again later this year.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

Tanti, who founded Pune, India-based Suzlon in 1995, said state-owned utilities in China have shown a strong preference in recent years for buying wind turbines from low-cost, local manufacturers. There are three large Chinese champions in the turbine business, and close to 60 smaller companies, he said. As a result, foreign companies have been losing market share in China's market, which he said is now the world's biggest for wind turbines after several years of 70% to 80% annual growth.

"I feel it's not good for China," Tanti said on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia, a gathering of political and business leaders on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. "They are losing the competitive development."

Suzlon opened its first office in China in 2003 and makes all its products for China in factories in the country. But it has not seen any growth in its China business recently, he said.

Still, Tanti said Suzlon "cannot let go" of the Chinese market, given its importance. "We will fight," he said. And he voiced optimism that the steady decreases in prices driven by Chinese manufacturers have basically stopped. Turbines produced by Chinese manufacturers, which are generally less technologically sophisticated than those of foreign companies, sell for about 5% less than those made by Suzlon, but as much as 20% below those of other foreign companies, Tanti said.

But with Chinese-made turbine prices now "already at commodity level," Tanti said, "there is no room for further reduction. Local companies will have to become more competitive on performance and technology," where foreign companies are stronger. "Our products and technology are better, and people will realize that," he said. "After two to three years, we will start growing again."

Suzlon this year is starting to export some of the turbines made in its Chinese manufacturing facilities, which should also help the operation, the chairman said.

Tanti said Suzlon has seen orders pick up recently from Europe and from emerging markets like India and Brazil, although demand from the U.S. remains soft and "will still take 12 to 18 months to recover fully." Improving demand around the world is being helped by government stimulus spending on renewable energy and by a resumption in banks' willingness to extend credit to wind projects, he said.

Suzlon's revenue will likely be somewhere between 5% down and 5% up for the current fiscal year, which runs through March, and will return to "high growth" of "at least 20%" in the next financial year, Tanti said. He expects growth to be largely flat in the first half of this year, and resume growth in the second half. Suzlon has yet to report results for its fiscal fourth quarter, but analysts estimate its revenue fell 14.5% for the full fiscal year to 224.52 billion rupees, or about $5.07 billion, from 262.59 billion in the year ended March 31, 2009.

"The worst part is over," he said. "Demand is not a problem, because every country needs ... green energy. The constraint was the liquidity, the financing of the banks," he said. Now "the liquidity is coming."

Wind-turbine makers were battered by the financial crisis, and Suzlon reported several quarters of net losses. In the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, Suzlon swung to a consolidated net profit of 141 million rupees ($3.2 million), compared with a net loss of 648.7 million rupees a year earlier. The profit derived in large part from Suzlon's November sale of a 35% stake in Belgium's Hansen Transmissions International NV. Suzlon's revenue fell 19% in the period to 56.08 billion rupees.

Tanti said Suzlon intends to eventually sell its remaining 26% stake in Hansen, but that no decision has been made on timing. Suzlon also intends to purchase the remaining shares in REpower Systems AG of Germany, in which he said it currently holds a 91% stake, but Tanti said he was unable to provide a timetable.

Suzlon has basically completed a major refinancing of its debt, Tanti said. The company's lenders have already disbursed about $2 billion in fresh credit that Suzlon has used to pay down previous debt, and another $300 million for working capital and expansion "will be available in the coming weeks," he said. Through the refinancing and the sale of the Hansen stake, Suzlon has reduced its overall debt level by 15%, he said.

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