ASUS Computer Inc., one of the world's largest PC vendors, expects a further revenue drop of 30 percent, or about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, for the first quarter of 2009, following its first quarterly loss for last year ever reported in 19 years.

This projection was announced last Thursday by Shen Zhenlai, CEO of ASUS.

In its financial report for the fourth quarter of 2008, ASUS saw a net loss of 82 million U.S. dollars, which means a 44 percent drop over the previous year.

Zhang Weiming, Head-Finance of ASUS, attributed the current economic downturn, which has caused large inventory for ASUS and depreciation of the Euro, as the main culprit for its loss.

However, the company's gross margin is now rallying up due to inventory liquidating efforts, cost control and organization streamlining, the CEO said. The man also expressed confidence that the company would turn loss into profits when the first quarter ends up.

The total shipment of the company's products reached 5.8 million last year, up 35 percent over the previous year, making ASUS the fifth largest computer seller on the global market.

But among the total outbound shipment of ASUS products, the shipment of its EeePC, an important revenue source for the company, amounted to 4.9 million last year, making ASUS the largest seller in that category around the world.