Portac Inc.

After three decades, Portac Inc., a sawmill on Tacoma's Tideflats, is closing. The company's president said that a combination of timber supply problems and the nation's weakening housing market is putting the sawmill out of business. Portac Inc. will lay off 71 workers, most of whom work in the sawmill, starting soon. Log suppliers have taken to harvesting their trees in shorter rotations, making for fewer and more expensive large logs. Meanwhile, lumber prices are declining as the housing market slows. Though the Portac Tacoma mill's products are used mostly for commercial construction, the company still felt the effects of the housing market.