The Chinese auto market's rapid growth is driving Chinese suppliers to seek capacity and technology overseas, said Dietmar Ostermann, a director and global automotive practice leader at consulting firm PRTM.

"We're predicting that Chinese suppliers increasingly will be buying North American and European suppliers to get technological skills," he said.

China's vehicle sales will grow from 14 million to 15 million units this year to nearly 25 million units by 2014, he said.

"There's no end in sight in terms of the growth rate," Ostermann said.

In a study released in September, PRTM cites FAWER Automotive Parts, a maker of drive shafts and brake systems, and interiors maker Ningbo Huaxiang Electronic Co., as likely buyers.

The buyout of General Motors' Nexteer steering business by China's Tempo International in July, backed by the municipality of Beijing, could serve as a template for future deals, industry pundits say.

But Chinese executives still prefer partnerships first before moving to a full-blow acquisition, says Cliff Roesler, a managing director at Angle Advisors-Investment Banking in suburban Detroit, which counsels Chinese firms on cross-border deals.

"The Chinese don't just say 'OK, we'll buy it, hand over the key,'" Roesler said. "They want to work together first, with the idea that eventually they might want to explore sharing ownership or an outright acquisition."

Pin Ni, president of Wanxiang America Corp., which has bought stakes in more than 20 U.S. suppliers since the mid-1990s, said competition for deals among Chinese-based parts makers is getting tougher.

The Chicago area firm, which makes chassis components and is owned by Wanxiang Group Corp., of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, owns 24 U.S. facilities and had 2009 sales of $1.3 billion.

"It's become more difficult to pick up a truly valuable opportunity," Ni says.

But interest in North American suppliers is heating up after the financial downturn virtually froze such deals, says C. Peter Theut, founder of China Bridge, an Ann Arbor, Mich., consulting firm that helps arrange mergers of Chinese and U.S. companies.

"To get a deal consummated with the Chinese in the past was very difficult," Theut says. "I find them more reasonable to deal with this time around."