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Global magnesium production has doubled since 2000. Production is now dominated by China, which accounts for about 80% of the total. Production in the rest of the world has actually declined since 2000. Magnesium is a relatively low cost option for achieving weight reduction beyond that attainable with aluminium. The price of magnesium has been relatively stable since a price spike in 2008. Analysis of research papers published on magnesium alloys shows an order of magnitude increase in numbers since 2000. As is the case for magnesium metal production, the Asian contribution has had a large impact, with Chinese authors accounting for over 40% of all publications in the period of 2009-2013. The fields of study in magnesium alloys show significant deviations from existing commercial applications with wrought magnesium alloys having far greater representation in research papers compared to components. Corrosion and protection remains a topical issue in magnesium research, representing the largest (by number) sub-topic of magnesium research papers published since 1999.

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Although refinement of the as‐cast grain size of magnesium alloys by Zr is well established commercially, little research has been undertaken to optimize this refinement technology and to quantify the relative performance of different Mg–Zr master alloys. The performance of Mg–Zr master alloys was found to be related to (1) the number density of Zr particles between 1 and 5 µm in size where the master alloy with the largest number density of these particles exhibits the best refinement, and (2) the alloy's growth restriction factor (Q) where a linear relationship between grain size and 1/Q, was found to exist for each master alloy. An equation for predicting grain size based on the Interdependence model was developed. Further, the Interdependence Model was improved to be able to cater for an increasing Zr particle number density with increasing values of Q.

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