Workers check solar panels at a solar power station on a factory roof in Changxing, eastern China's Zhejiang province on Feb. 7, 2012. Photo by AP Photo/File

A major solar panel manufacturer is transferring the assets of its Chinese unit to Canadian ownership, to safeguard sales into the U.S. as Washington steps up scrutiny of imports from the Asian nation.

CSI Solar Co., based in Suzhou, will sell 75.1 per cent of three overseas factories that serve the U.S. market to its parent company, Canadian Solar Inc., the Chinese company said in an exchange filing in Shanghai.

Canadian Solar, which is listed on the Nasdaq , was the world’s seventh-biggest producer of solar panels last year, according to BloombergNEF data, and was an early entrant into the booming energy storage business. It

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