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Myanmar to auction heavy wood loaded on abandoned vessel

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-09 13:01

YANGON -- The state-owned Myanmar shipping enterprise, Myanmar Five Star Line, will auction 3,000 tons of wood on a vessel which was stranded near Haigyigyun Island during May storm, the local Weekly Eleven News reported Tuesday.

With the wood being loaded then, the MV Cosmic Leader vessel, owned by the Japan-based Eastern Car Liner, was stranded when cyclone Nargis swept the area of southwestern Ayeyawaddy division.

The company announced total abandonment of the stranded vessel in October.

The auction sets that the sealed tender winner is to unload the wood out of their own means and the tender will close on December 12.

Myanmar has so far salvaged 32 vessels out of 40 sunk during the severe May storm, local reports said.

Further efforts are being made to do so on the remaining eight sunk vessels and it is expected that the salvage work will complete before the end of this year.

Deadly cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar's five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.

The storm has killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to the official death toll.