The head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturer's Association of Canada welcomes the Chinese purchase of Windsor-based Valiant.
Flavio Volpe says it signals the Chinese are interested in moving into the North American auto sector.
Speaking on the Business News Network, Volpe says there have been other, similar investments that have not gotten as much attention.
Volpe says it makes sense for the Chinese consortium to keep the Valiant operations where they are because it's a very relevant medium-sized player with footprints in 15 countries,
He says their Windsor base is where they make their most strategic accounts, their OEM accounts. It is a multi-generational family owned company that is engrained in Detroit.
Volpe says there's little likelihood the consortium wants to simply take the intellectual property from Valiant and take it to China doesn't add up because it would mean they're spending money to start all over again.
Volpe says there have been a number of smaller Chinese investments in auto supply companies with Valiant being the most high-profile.
He believes we're probably 3-5 years away from seeing cars sold here, then an overlapping 5-7 years of seeing cars built in North America.
Volpe says 10 years ago there would have been a lot of objection to a Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in a key Canadian auto supplier.
But he says the game has changed and we should see it as a way to attract a manufacturing plant to Canada from the country that's now the largest auto manufacturing centre in the world.