South Korea's exports of chips to India surged by almost 50 percent in the first four months of the year in spite of the contraction in overall exports.

According to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association on Sunday, the country's chip exports to India came to 490 million dollars in the January-April period, up 48-point-five percent from a year earlier.

The performance is in stark contrast to a sharp dip of about 20 percent in the country's chip exports in total at 31-point-62 billion dollars.

The ministry's tentative data for May showed chip shipments to India also jumped 38-point-four percent on-year to 110 million dollars.

The ministry attributed the surge to strong sales of Korean smartphones produced by Samsung Electronics' local smartphone plant in India.