[7][8][9] Kollam was a port city of the Chera Dynasty until the formation of the independent Venad kingdom, of which it became the capital.

Prior to that, Kollam was considered one of the four early entrepots in the global sea trade around the 13th century, along with Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt, the Chinese city of Quanzhou, and Malacca in the Malaysian archipelago.

The port was founded by Mar Abo with sanction from Udayamarthandavarma the Tamil king of the Venad in 825 as an alternative to reopening the inland seaport of Kore-ke-ni Kollam near Backare (Thevalakara) also known as Nelcynda and Tyndis to the Romans and the Greeks and Thondi to the Tamils and is also the foundation of the new city.

It is also believed that Mar Abo actually volunteered to the Chera king to create a new seaport town near at Kollam instead of his request for renewing the almost vanishing Tyndis or Nelcynda inland seaport ( kore-ke-ni) at Kollam, lying idle without trade for a few centuries because of the Cheras being overrun by Pallavas in the 6th century AD ending the spice trade from Malabar coast.

This allowed Mar Abo to stay for many decades in Chera kingdom and streamline Christian faith among the Nampoothiri Vaishnavites &Nair sub-castes in the St. Thomas tradition with Syrian liturgy as Reference for the Doctrine of Trinity without replacing the Sanskrit and Vedic prayers.

That was the period when Kollam evolved as a major trade center (of spices) and an important port along the Malabar coast.

These finds reveal that Kollam was the most important port city in India, which served as the business hub of people from China, Middle East, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil and other Eastern Mediterranean countries.

Sooryamukhi, the chartered ship of Kerala State Maritime Development Corporation has sailed to Mudra Port in Gujarat to load tiles and building materials.

Commodities currently handled or planned for the port include marble, tiles, sand, titanium ore, cashew nuts, kernels and nut shell liquid, seafood, clay, timber logs, sillimanite, titanium dioxide, blood products, newsprint and waste paper, cement, urea and muriate of potash for fertilizer, rubber, food, agricultural products and cement as well as other commodities and products for local companies such as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Trivandrum and Kerala Minerals and Metals.

A facelift of the Maruthadi-Iravipuram area will be carried out by the government as part of the "Kollam Port City" project and will include facilities for sports, fishing, tourism and entertainment.

As part of the modernization, Government of Kerala have already established a Maritime Institute at Neendakara in Kollam city[24][25][26] The Indian State Cabinet approved a detailed project report to develop the port in April 2012.

[28] With the help of this technology, import and export details of goods, tax amounts and payments will be converted into electronic format.

To facilitate this move, a high-speed dedicated Multiprotocol Label Switching enabled internet connection has been implemented at the port.

[30][31] There is also a plan to set up a quarantine facility and cashew testing lab at the port with the support of CEPCI.

Industrial Development Zones will be set up in districts such as Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur and Kollam, which have either ports or airports.

Townships will also be built adjacent to these facilities[35] Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the construction works of new Passenger Terminal at Kollam Port on 14 August 2015.

[38] 'Intermarine', an international vessel from Singapore has anchored at Port of Kollam with 5,600 tonnes of raw cashew from the West African country of Guinea-Bissau on 30 August 2015, after a long gap of 47 years.

[42] This service is expected to benefit customers as cargo landing in Kollam will ensure better visibility and control over inventory, besides saving cost.

Minister K. Babu laid the foundation stone for the Kollam port complex worth Rs.5-crore on 14 January 2016.

Plans of health department authorities are underway to bring visitors from Maldives and Lakshadweep to Kollam to make them aware of efficient but cheap medical facilities available here.

[50] In 2018 October, Senior Director of the Singapore-based X-Press Feeders Group, Nelson Sekera, met the Kerala Minister for Port Kadannappalli Ramachandran at Asramam Government Guest House and expressed their willingness to start Colombo-Kollam ship services.