FRANKFURT—Preliminary data by the International Federation of Robotics shows a 19 percent sales increase of industrial robots to China in 2020, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, nearly 167,000 industrial robots were delivered there last year.

AUSTIN, TX—Personal protective equipment manufacturer Armbrust American has announced that its factories are now capable of producing meltblown, the nonwoven fabric material that filters out microscopic particulate matter such as the coronavirus.

BRUSSELS—The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the biggest decline in car production in Europe on record, according to data published last week by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

COVID-19 has accelerated deglobalization in manufacturing, but that shift was already underway before the pandemic. Between 1990 and 2016, global trade had been growing at average annual rate of 4.9 percent, according to the World Trade Organization.

FRANKLIN LAKES, NJ—Becton, Dickinson and Co. plans to invest approximately $1.2 billion over a four-year period to expand and upgrade manufacturing capacity and technology for pre-fillable syringes and advanced drug delivery systems across its six global manufacturing locations and add a new manufacturing facility in Europe.

LOUISVILLE—Approximately 20,000 active and retired Ford factory workers, their immediate family members and surviving spouses will be able to get coronavirus tests at the UAW hall here after the union’s executive board voted unanimously to hire a private laboratory to perform the tests at no cost to members.

BOXBOROUGH, MA—German contract manufacturer Vibalogics GmbH is investing $150 million and hiring 100 people for a facility here to help Big Pharma develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The company plans to open the site by the second half of 2021.

LENEXA, KS–Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. recently cut the ribbon on its new $40 million facility here dedicated to viral transport media production.