LONDON - Pirelli & C. SpA, the world's fifth-largest tire maker, has placed China's premium car market at the heart of its industrial plan updates for the coming three years.

The Italy-based company's supply of tires to luxury car manufacturers in China is expected to grow from less than 600,000 units in 2011 to about 1.4 million units in 2015, it announced in London on Wednesday.

"China is a great opportunity for us because its premium car market has only started growing rapidly in the last two to four years," said Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of Pirelli.

Provera also said that China's rising cost of labor, inflationary pressures and currency appreciation will have negligible effect on the company's growth in the Chinese market because of high premiums placed on Pirelli's products.

"To support our strategy, we are spending quite a few million euros each year in order to cover all major and mid-tier cities in China by increasing the number of Pirelli point of sales," said Francesco Gori, managing director of Pirelli Tire & Parts.

In China, Pirelli's points of sales will increase from less than 1,000 in 2011 to over 3,000 before the end of 2014, the company said.

Pirelli announced in June that it intends to develop its factory in Yanzhou, Shandong province, into the company's largest facility in a few years.

By 2012, Pirelli's plans to double passenger car tire output in China and produce 1 million motorcycle tires each year.