Building products supplier Crane Group Ltd is increasingly sourcing products from China, but does not have any significant redundancies planned for the future, according to managing director Greg Sedgwick.

Mr Sedgwick said Crane's Iplex pipeline and Tradelink plumbing supplies operations were increasingly sourcing goods from China.

"Like all Australian companies we're looking to increase over time our offshore sourcing," he told AAP.

"We've got five business with thousands of products and within those businesses there are people looking at their sourcing alternatives all the time, whether it's a brass rod from Taiwan to taps from Shanghai."

Around 90 per cent of Crane's products are presently manufactured in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Sedgwick said Crane had lost around 900 employees in the recent restructuring of its metals group, with some staff moving from the company when Crane sold businesses off while others were made redundant.

The biggest reduction of staff occurred with the closure of Crane's Conex metal manufacturing plant in south-west Sydney last month, which saw 220 employees lose their jobs.

Mr Sedgwick said there were no more redundancies "of significant note" planned but refused to rule them out.

"We're always looking for ways to improve productivity, customers and businesses shift," he said.

The slowdown in residential construction and renovation had bottomed out but that it would not improve this calendar year, Mr Sedgwick said.

"From what we're seeing things will remain the same for the next three quarters," he said.

© 2006 AAP