Crypto mining operator Core Scientific is set to become the first North American cooperative repair center for major crypto mining hardware manufacturer, Bitmain.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the company will offer repair services for Bitmain’s machines. The company says that this will reduce costs associated with shipping hardware to Asia, and curtail the time it takes to fix Bitmain’s proprietary hardware.

Core Scientific will also be able to perform repairs on out-of-warranty machines, with engineers certified by the Bitmain’s Ant Training Academy.

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Taras Kulyk, Core Scientific’s Senior VP of Blockchain Development, highlighted China as the dominant jurisdiction within the digital mining sector. He also noted that the country is currently the global leader in terms of Bitcoin’s (BTC) hashrate.

He acknowledged, however, that global hashrate diversification has increased in recent months as other countries (the U.S. in particular) vie for their place in the digital mining industry:

“This growth in demand has massively increased the strain on the repair services needed to maintain the fleet within the US and Canada. Importantly, being selected as the cooperative repair center for Bitmain will allow our customers, as well as other Bitmain product users, within North America to materially reduce downtime and the costs involved in repairing their bitmain hardware.”

Russell Cann, Core Scientific’s Chief Customer Success Officer, spoke with Cointelegraph on the benefits of a North American repair center:

“At a minimum, the Core Scientific warranty repair center will save customers the international shipping cost of units going to Hong Kong. More importantly, the customer downtime of a unit in-warranty repair will be significantly shortened by having a large US operator handle warranty repair. Current shipping savings is estimated to be as much as US$100/unit and having a repair center within North America should cut the repair time by as much as two weeks.”

Over the past year, the crypto mining industry in the United States has witnessed an uptick in activity, with Bitcoin’s hash rate increasing by 78% between September 2019 and April 2020.