Stena Line chief executive Niclas Mårtensson strides purposefully into the conference room of his company’s headquarters in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, with a miniature Ireland flag in his hand. He hopes it will bring “good vibes” for his interview with The Irish Times.
The ferry company is a household name in Ireland, stemming from the many years it spent bringing Irish travellers backwards and forwards across the Irish Sea between the port in Dún Laoghaire and Holyhead in Wales.
With Dún Laoghaire no longer operational, the company now departs from Dublin Port, as well as Rosslare. Affable and straight-talking, Mårtensson makes no bones about the fact Ireland and the Irish Sea are hugely important to the company.
“The Irish Sea is the most important sea for Stena Line,” he says. “It is where we have the majority of our investments over the past number of years, and it is the biggest region for us in terms of numbers. Fifty per cent of our revenue is to and from the UK.
RM Block
“To be honest, maybe we should have our headquarters in Dublin instead, because that’s how important it is. This has been quite a turbulent year for us. We have taken away and we have added in the Irish Sea.”
Stena Line own ports in Scotland and Wales, and is keen to add Dublin to that list. “While we don’t own a port in Ireland, we are trying to sign a long-term contract so we can be there for many years, and preferably operate the port as well.”
Irish roads
Mårtensson axed Stena Line’s Rosslare-Cherbourg service in June, and does not hold back in his criticism of the road network between Dublin and the Wexford facility.
“Once you are in the port, the infrastructure is good but it takes a while to get there,” he says. “The scenery is fantastic but that is not what our hauliers are asking for. Even from a safety perspective, improvements would be very much welcome in and around Rosslare.
“It’s the road itself that needs to be improved. It needs to be widened. We are driving through all these small villages which are not meant to have these heavy trucks passing through them. I’m thinking about the people in the villages as well.”
Asked about infrastructure challenges the Government should focus on, he says he has a two-point wish list.
Top of that list is his wish to secure much longer port contracts in Dublin. “If I invest in a ship, it will be there for 40 years,” he says. “Therefore, I need to have a reflection in the port contract that there is willingness to have us there for 40 years. Otherwise I am jeopardising.
“We have challenges with Dublin Port to get those long-term assignments. This is our number one problem. We are still asking them [why]. If you are a private contractor building a highway, you don’t build it for the next four years. You build it for the next 50 years.”
Mårtensson says the company made a “huge loss” transporting crucial goods like oxygen to Ireland during the Covid pandemic. “I’m sure in the long run that will pay off in a long-term port contract or better infrastructure or whatever, but it takes two to tango,” he says.
His second gripe is with the infrastructure for electrification in Irish ports. “The EU says we have to have shore-based electricity for our ships by 2030,” he says. “We have done our homework so our ships are ready, but we want to have something to plug into.
“Ireland and the Irish Sea is equal to zero today when it comes to the green transition. We don’t see anything when it comes to shore connection. It doesn’t exist. We can’t sit and wait. We don’t want to be bitter because we understand the challenges.
“Instead of just sitting and waiting and crying and complaining, we have biodiesel, methanol and methane. We have wind propulsion, sails, and we have a battery package. That means Stena Line can go green even if we don’t have connection in the ports.”
Nuclear
Mårtensson says the “whole green agenda” has been “downgraded in the world” in recent years, and suggests nuclear power will form part of the solution to the carbon problem in travel.
“I think in five years’ time, people will have a totally different view of nuclear energy because there are no other alternatives,” he says.
“We have icebreaker ships and submarines in the world that are nuclear powered and you only have to fuel up once in a lifetime. I don’t see it on passenger ships in the next few years, but once it has been accepted, it will be extremely powerful in solving a problem.”
Mårtensson admits the transition to greener methods of travel means that fares will rise. “Generally, costs will continue to go up and we need to get paid for that,” he says.
“It looks like we will be more expensive, but we need to adapt into the GDP growth and the economy and so forth, because if we, all of a sudden, become too expensive, then we don’t exist.
“What we see is a trend that private people on holiday can pay a symbolic price, just for themselves to feel good, but it looks different for freight customers because their margins are extremely low and they are not willing to add any extras.”
Looking to the year ahead, Mårtensson says bookings are looking “very good” for the “extremely important” Christmas period.
“We think next summer will grow because we think people are sick and tired of putting their money in the savings account and Europeans want to start consuming a little bit now,” he says.
“So I hope for a very good 2026. We thought it would come in 2025 but it did not really. There is a hangover from Covid and the post-Covid period.
“It’s also the lack of trust from consumers in the market. They have been a little bit scared and have put too much money in the bank account. There is also the geopolitical instability, which has not hit Ireland as much as, say, the Baltic Sea.”
AI
On the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), Mårtensson says the technology has helped the company heavily when it comes to marketing and customer service.
“We have improved the situation for our freight customers who don’t have to come as early with their cargo,” he says. “That means they can increase their efficiency as well. There is also greater efficiency in the ports in terms of where they should put their cargo and pick it up.
“We also use AI very much in terms of ship operation. We have something called AI captain, where we took all existing historical data, put it into AI, added the expertise of our senior masters, and then added traffic, currents, waves, weather, load, etc.
“Then there is a recommendation from the AI captain to sail at a certain speed on this course and so forth. I think that has decreased out carbon emissions by 3-5 per cent.”
Mårtensson does not believe AI technology will lead to fewer crew on board his vessels. “I don’t think AI will lead to less crew on our ships but we will use them more efficiently,” he says. “It will improve our service level.”
He also does not see a future for driverless ships due to the need to respond to threats emerging from the likes of Russia in the Baltic Sea.
“We see the geopolitical turbulence in the Baltic Sea and we experience technology disturbance in the Baltic Sea, so we always want to have physical people on the bridge who can take over if there is disruption from a geopolitical perspective,” he says.
“There are countries in the Baltic Sea who disturb our radar. We need people on board who can sail via the stars, maps and sextants. We need to be able to navigate in situations where the radar goes black.
“It’s called GPS jamming. They disturb the signal from the satellite so either you don’t have a signal and you don’t know where you are, or there is something called spoofing, which is when you are told you are in a position that is completely wrong.
“It is the dark fleet from the Russians who say they are sailing in one place, but actually they are 130 metres to the right. It is extremely dangerous. Or they turn off the responder totally and we don’t even see them on the radar.”
