Samsung Electronics is mulling partnerships with Chinese companies to boost its components business, Korea Times said.

The South Korean giant is looking to improve its performance in the “less volatile and more profitable logic chip business”, as its conventional memory chip operations have come under pressure from competitors – including Chinese players.

Talks are apparently taking place at a “working level”.

According to the report, despite its size, China is still a small market for Samsung’s chip business, meaning that the company has much to gain from working more closely with domestic players.

It was also noted that GlobalFoundaries, a Samsung component partner, is in discussions in China, with the possibility that the two may work together to add Chinese players to their alliance.

But such an alliance is likely to involve significant challenges in terms of the details.

While Samsung said its Q1 semiconductor sales of KRW11.15 trillion ($9.5 billion) were up 9 per cent year-on-year, memory sales of KRW7.94 trillion were down 5 per cent.