* China sales expected to top $2 billion in 2012
* China market to surpass U.S. in next decade
* Estimates 2011 total rev above $15 bln to record (Adds quotes from interview with chairman, INTERVIEW headline tag)
By Alison Leung
SHANGHAI, April 20 (Reuters) - TRW Automotive Holdings Corp , a U.S. automotive supplier, believes its sales in China will more than double in two years, driving its 2011 total revenue to a record of above $15 billion, its chairman said on Wednesday.
TRW will make its biggest-ever investment in China this year, building at least five new factories and a second technical centre, John Plant, chairman, president and CEO, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Shanghai auto show.
"In 2011, just in capital equipment and machinery in plants, we are going to invest more than $100 million," Plant said.
Livonia, Michigan-based TRW, which generates more than 90 percent of its revenue from auto safety equipment, exhibited for the first time at the Shanghai auto show this week, displaying its braking, steering, seatbelts and other systems.
Its customers in China range from global leaders such as General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co to domestic automakers including Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd and Chery Automobile.
Shares of TRW have eased about 5 percent this year, underpforming a 6 percent gain on the Dow Jones industrial average . But the stock jumped 120 percent last year against an 11 percent rise on the broader market.
Plant said increasing regulations on safety, the wealth effect and safety consciousness in China will boost demand for TRW products.
"People tend to buy more sophisticated and expensive vehicles," he said. As people buy more expensive vehicles, they want a higher level of safety equipment, he added.
Growth of vehicle sales in China, the world's biggest auto market, was likely to moderate in 2011 but still be substantial, Plant said.
TRW's revenue rose 24 percent in 2010 to $14.4 billion, of which up to $1.5 billion was from China.
"We will more than double sales in the next two years (in China)," Plant said.
He expects TRW's total revenue to hit a record in 2011, surpassing a pre-crisis high of about $15 billion in 2008. Revenue in "2011 will substantially exceed $15 billion," he said.
TRW generated about 50 percent of its sales from Europe and 30 percent from the United States last year.
"During the next decade, I expect sales in China will become bigger than those in the United States," Plant said.
The company has 14 manufacturing plants in China and is eager to build market share against competitors such as Autoliv Inc and Takata Corp .
Plant said the new Chinese factories will boost the number of TRW's manufacturing plants in the country to 19. "In fact, with our sales increase later this year, I expect we will exceed 20 by the end of the year," he added.
TRW's planned technical centre in China is scheduled to be opened in 2013 with a staff of more than 1,000 engineers, who will supplement its existing Asia Pacific technical centre in Shanghai.
Plant said his impression of China is "more."
"Every time we build something, we generally sell the capacity of it. It ends up working 24 hours a day, seven days a week." (Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Matt Driskill)