NEW YORK—Manufacturing in the New York region expanded in July at the fastest pace in five months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index.

COLUMBUS, OH—The Edison Welding Institute has launched a program to train 25,000 welders in the United States over the next three years.

AUBURN, AL—Auto supplier Donghee America Inc. plans to invest $48 million to open a 117,000-square-foot assembly plant here, creating 80 jobs.The facility will produce fuel tanks.

FLORENCE, SC—A possible bomb threat at the Otis Elevator assembly plant here forced the evacuation of all employees Monday morning.

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation recently received a contract from a Tier 1 automotive supplier to provide a multistation system to assemble and test a lane departure warning system.

LONG BEACH, CA—Mercedes-Benz has leased the long-vacant former Boeing aircraft manufacturing facility here. The luxury carmaker has yet to reveal its plans for the site.

MONTREAL—Canadian researchers have invented a double-SCARA parallel robot that is more rigid and has a larger work envelope than a standard SCARA.

WATERLOO, ON—Onward Manufacturing’s assembly plant here was evacuated Friday after a worker who was fired allegedly returned to the building and starting pouring gasoline.

WASHINGTON—The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation announced that its quarterly index of manufacturing activity advanced to 58 in June from 56 in March. It was the second straight quarterly advance after 10 consecutive quarterly declines. For the past 15 quarters, the index has remained above the threshold of 50, the dividing line separating contraction and expansion.

WEST POINT, GA—Less than four years after production began, the Kia Motors assembly plant here has produced its 1 millionth vehicle.