After a lengthy lull in demand, the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation is beginning to drum up business under its commercial account as companies search for alternative finance options.EFIC said yesterday in a media release that it will provide finance to support the leasing of mining equipment by Leighton Holdings' Indonesian subsidiaries - PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia and PT Thiess Contractors Indonesia - for use in contract mining operations.EFIC said it is providing a loan of US$150 million to the lessor of the mining equipment. The total lease finance facility will be US$177 million, of which 85 per cent will be funded by EFIC and 15 per cent by ANZ.This appears to more than double the level of conventional lending on the EFIC balance sheet at a stroke.The 2008 annual report of EFIC shows loans under the commercial account of only $145 million, down from a high in the years following the Asian financial crisis of $480 million.EFIC funded export finance facilities in aggregate of $892 million as of June 2008, with some growth in guarantees and insured credits during the year.Leighton, more than many industrial companies, has had reasonably ready access to the capital market over the last six months or so. Leighton sold $700 million in shares in August 2008 and $280 million in long-term debt in the US private placement market in September 2008.Presumably the cost of borrowing from a bank was an unappealing option for Leighton in this instance, assuming that it could even get set.