GUANGZHOU, CHINA — Aiming to diversify its product offerings, Chinese pipe and fittings maker Jiangsu Huasheng Plastic Co. Ltd. is spending 205 million Chinese yuan ($33 million) on a significant expansion of capacity at its headquarters in Changzhou.

The privately-owned company has broken ground on a new factory that will allow it manufacture more polyethylene and polypropylene pipe and fittings, expanding from its current offerings of PVC-related products, company officials said at an interview at the Water China 2013 trade show, held March 4-6 in Guangzhou.

Specific details of the capacity expansion have not been determined, but the company currently has 150 injection molding machines, from 60 to 2,200 tons, and four Cincinnati extrusion lines with a capacity of 50,000 metric tons at its Changzhou factory.

The new facility will be a significant expansion of capacity when it opens in one to two years, said Tommy Pan, a salesman in the company's international trade department.

Huasheng is making the investment because it wants to broaden its product line in the face of stiffer competition in its traditional PVC pipe markets, he said.

"The PVC market is quite tough right now," Pan said. "Just in the last year, there are more than five or six new factories in China. The competition is getting tougher and tougher and profit margins are getting down."

The company started in 1988 manufacturing for other pipe makers, but in 2008 launched its own brands, Huasheng and Cenit. It also started exporting three years ago, and today sells in the Middle East, Thailand, Germany and Africa, Pan said.