South Korean conglomerates are becoming more dependent on the Chinese market for sales growth and the reliance is likely to deepen from a recent trade pact, a report by a local corporate research firm showed Tuesday.

According to CEO Score, an online corporate productivity evaluation firm, an analysis of 38 out of 200 top companies that reported their overseas earnings showed sales to China last year reached 145.15 trillion won, up 34.6 percent from around 108 trillion won in 2011.

The growth rate is higher than the average 19.9 percent increase in sales posted by the same companies in the same period.

"In effect, the Chinese market is helping to generate growth for these companies," the online evaluator said.

South Korea and China agreed on a free trade agreement on Monday that opens up their markets wider to each other and lowers tariffs. While hailed as a landmark trade deal for both countries, CEO Score said the FTA will likely further push up sales and make the vast market more important to domestic companies.

The provided figures showed China accounted for 17.5 percent of all sales of companies analyzed last year, compared to 15.6 percent in 2011.

As of last year, Samsung Electronics Co., the flagship of Samsung Group, South Korea's largest family-run conglomerate known as chaebol, sold 40.15 trillion won worth of goods in the neighboring country, placing it No. 1 in terms of market presence.

The IT giant, the world's largest mobile phone and memory chip maker, reported sales reaching 228.7 trillion won worldwide, with Chinese sales making up 17.6 percent of the total. The increase represents a surge of 74 percent from about 23 trillion won reported two years earlier.

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker and top company in Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automotive conglomerate, said its sales in China reached 19.4 trillion won, or about 18.2 percent, of all goods sold in 2013, with numbers for LG Display hitting 15.23 trillion won. This, the display maker said, makes up 56.3 percent of all of its sales in the one year period.

Other local companies such as LG Chem, one of the largest rechargeable battery makers in the world, said its sales to China reached 10.2 trillion won, or 44 percent of the total.

Companies such as Hyundai Mobis, Samsung Display, POSCO, LG Electronics, S-Oil and Samsung SDI all said China is a significant market.

In particular, Samsung SDI said China accounted for 67 percent of its total sales last year. The company sells parts and batteries for tablet PCs and smartphones.

LG Display and LG Chem said 56.3 percent and 44 percent of their sales came from China.

"The latest numbers clearly show South Korean companies taking full advantage of the Chinese market for growth, but on the negative side, the same businesses are becoming swiftly dependent on a large, single market. That poses its own challenges," an industry watcher said. (Yonhap)