SÃO PAULO — Vale will run its first autonomous shiploader trial in December at the Ponta da Madeira Maritime Terminal in São Luís, Maranhão, the company said at the Port Performance Summit 2026. The machine is expected to complete a full loading cycle without direct operator commands, with staff supervising from the control room.

The test moves Vale beyond remote control, which it already uses for eight shiploaders at Ponta da Madeira and four at Tubarão in Espírito Santo, where operators still steer every movement manually. Under the autonomous setup, the machine runs the movements itself.

Vale says its AI planning system, SIOP, has lifted iron ore shipments by more than 1.5% and cut vessel demurrage by up to 2% by refreshing the terminal plan every 30 minutes. A separate AI tool recommending ship speeds generated US$65 million in savings in 2025, and automation of yard machines at southern terminals raised their operating rate by 12%.

Ponta da Madeira is Vale's busiest port, handling 177.5 million tonnes of iron ore in 2024 — over half of its Brazilian shipments. The company aims to raise throughput without a proportionate build-out of new infrastructure.

Vale is following, not leading, the trend: BHP began automated shiploader trials at Port Hedland, Western Australia, in 2022, and semi-autonomous bulk handling runs in Rotterdam, Singapore, China and elsewhere in Australia. The work sits under Vale's Porto 100 strategy and Porto Conectado programme, which also covers the modernisation of the 60-year-old Tubarão port. Vale has pledged about R$12 billion for Espírito Santo through 2030, with capacity there targeted to rise from roughly 120 million to 130–135 million tonnes a year.

Terminal director Walter Pinheiro cautioned that full autonomy depends as much on cybersecurity and system redundancy as on new hardware. The December trial will offer the first real-world read on how fast Vale can close the gap.