HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korean panel makers will likely outperform their foreign peers in 2012 because of higher profit margins, J.P. Morgan Securities said Wednesday.

Amid a prolonged downturn in demand for liquid crystal display panels from the TV industry, display makers have been suffering a supply glut in the industry, which, as a result, weighed down display panel prices.

J.P. Morgan predicted Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Display Co., along with Japan’s Sharp Corp., will be the outperformers in 2012, while AU Optronics Corp. and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. could remain loss-making for the entire year.

“In our view, 2012 will mark a year of natural selection when panel makers with a solid foundation will widen the gap with the laggards,” said JJ Park, an analyst at J.P. Morgan.

“We believe leaders will gain more market share and return to profitability, but for companies that lack a strong customer base, technology and execution, there is simply not enough room to make profits.”

The investment bank said that since 2008, South Korean panel makers have maintained their profitability leadership on the back of a better product mix, a strong customer base and economies of scale.

The emergence of advanced display panels called organic light-emitting diodes will further increase the discrepancy between the leading panels makers and followers, as OLED is expected to gradually take more market share in the LCD TV market, J.P. Morgan said.

OLED screens are widely expected to replace liquid crystal display screens, but their high cost has remained a barrier to developing large-size, commercial electronics products using OLED displays.

Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. are poised to start global sales of their new 55-inch TVs using OLEDs.