In August 1904, in order to develop the local industrial needs of Nantong, Zhang Jian, a famous national industrialist, built two relatively well-equipped facilities in Tiansheng Harbor on the bank of the Yangtze River, and a certain scale of "Tongyuan" and "Tongjing" wharves, and set up the Nantong Tiansheng Nantong Tiansheng, Hong Kong Dada wheel step company, operating port business, Nantong port was formally established. The completion of Tiansheng Port Terminal ended the history of no port terminal along the river and near the sea in Nantong area. At the beginning of the establishment of new China, Nantong port port facilities are simple and outdated, only Tiansheng port has a repair of the pier berth can be barely used, there is no institutional equipment, there is no cargo yard, warehouse area of less than 1,000 square meters.
May 10, 1955 Nantong Municipal People's Government will be the Tiansheng port Dada wheel step takeover, Nantong port from a private enterprise into the ranks of socialist ownership.
August 10, 1957, the Yangtze River Shipping Administration Nantong Port Authority was established.
In 1959, Nantong port hub project in the new port area of Nantong port wharf construction project began, the project includes two 3,000 ~ 5,000-ton wharf, a 493 square meters of waiting room and warehouses, yards and other facilities. 1960 April, Nantong port new port area of the first wharf put into use. 1961 April, the second wharf construction project all completed. The construction of the new port area of Nantong Port has enabled Nantong Port to develop gradually from a small local river port into an important water gateway in southern Jiangsu Province and a hub port on the Yangtze River trunk line.
In 1963, the ship "Heping" of Shanghai Marine Transportation Bureau transported yellow sand from Qingdao to Nantong Port, and Nantong Port began to see the business of sea into the river.
In the late 70's, Nantong Port started large-scale wharf construction; in 1980, two 10,000-ton deep-water wharves were built in Wushan Harbor, as well as a rainy and sunny shed with a total floor area of 6,579 square meters, and in 1983, a 25,000-ton deep-water wharf was built. The opening of Wushan harbor area made Nantong harbor become the first deep-water harbor on the Yangtze River and formed the advantage of river, sea and river transit transportation, and Nantong harbor became an open, multi-functional and comprehensive river and sea harbor.
In March 1980, the State Council approved Nantong Port as the Yangtze River foreign trade and transportation port, Jiangsu Ocean Shipping Company "Yuhua" first docked at Nantong Port Port No. 1, shipping 399 tons of cotton exported to Hong Kong, the port of Nantong formally opened for foreign trade transportation.
In November 1982, Nantong Port was opened to foreign ships, and in May 1983, the first foreign ship "Greenland Sea" docked and unloaded at No.1 Wharf of Wushan Port.
In November 1984, the international container line from Nantong to Kobe, Japan was opened; in September 1985, the regular container line from Nantong to Hong Kong was opened.
In 1987, the port management system underwent a major reform, the port of Nantong to implement the Ministry of Transportation and Nantong City, dual leadership, local management-based management system.
In 1991, as one of the large and medium-sized key projects during the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" period of the country, the Wolf Mountain II project was in full swing, and the project was completed and put into operation in 1993, with a total investment of RMB 250 million yuan, and three 10,000-ton bulk berths, and six 2,000-ton Yangtze River berths were built, with an annual capacity of 8.4 million tons. 1994, in order to meet the increasing demand for container transport, the port of Nantong has been developing into a new port of Nantong. In 1994, in order to adapt to the continuous development of container transportation, the second phase of the Wolf Mountain container, multi-purpose berth project started in full. 1995 container terminal main project through the acceptance and put into trial production. 1997, the project was fully completed, with a total investment of 320 million yuan, the completion of the two container berths, can berth the third generation of container ship operations, the annual throughput capacity of 150,000 TEU. container terminals were built to end the Nantong port without a dedicated container terminal. Nantong port no container terminal history.
In April 2001, Nantong port berth upgrading project through the completion of acceptance, Nantong port 405, 410 two berths by 25,000 ~ 30,000 tons of reinforced upgraded to 50,000 tons, the port of Nantong has become the Yangtze River ports along the port of the berthing capacity of the largest port.
August 30, 2002, Nantong port management system was reformed in the former Nantong Port Authority system based on the establishment of the Nantong Port Authority and Nantong Port Group Co., Ltd. the newly established Nantong Port Group will be regulated in accordance with the modern enterprise system, give full play to the role of Nantong port of the country's major ports.
December 18, 2002, included in the national "Tenth Five-Year" development and construction projects, Wolf Mountain Phase III project officially started construction.