Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), the world's sixth largest container shipping firm, said it was not making a bid for German rival Hapag-Lloyd AG.

"NOL wishes to state that currently, it is not making another bid for a stake in Hapag-Lloyd," the container shipper said in a stock market filing.

The statement came after a German paper Die Welt reported that NOL had resumed talks about buying Hapag-Lloyd, without identifying its sources. The report was widely quoted in other media, including Singapore's Business Times.

NOL broke off acquisition talks in 2008 after failing to agree on a price for Hapag-Lloyd, which is owned by a consortium of Hamburg-based investors and tourism group TUI. (Reuters)