We’ve published a number of articles on trends in the magnesium industry over the past several years, and they all point to one inalienable truth—magnesium is an expensive material for North American metalcasters to pour. But the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) could change that.

According to an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the ITC has voted to “conduct a full review of 5-year-old tariffs imposed on imported magnesium.”

The newspaper says the decision was in no small part owed to the efforts of Spartan Light Metal Products, Sunset Hills, Mo., which produces die castings in various nonferrous materials.

Nothing has been decided by ITC yet, but this could be the first step in helping magnesium gain a firmer foothold in the metal component marketplace. That would mean good things for designers interested in light-weighting initiatives, as well as the metalcasters that serve them.