The Export-Import Bank of the United States continues to lift its level of direct lending to specialist US manufacturing concerns seeking access to low cost finance to support contracts to supply Australian-linked buyers.The Ex-Im Bank disclosed yesterday that over the first six-and-a-half months of 2012 it approved more than US$3.1 billion in financing for US exports to Australia.The latest financing - previously foreshadowed by the recipient - is being provided to Jabiru Satellite Ltd, a Melbourne-based firm that will provide communications services to customers in the Middle East and Africa. The Ex-Im Bank will make a direct loan of US$281 million to Jabiru.The bank said its credit exposure in Australia represented US$1.7 billion of the Bank's portfolio.Two months ago the bank said it would provide a US$2.95 billion loan to support sales by US contractors to the Australia-Pacific LNG project, on Curtis Island, near Gladstone.