SARASOTA, FL—Florida manufacturers are anticipating a good year in 2013. The state’s exports of manufactured goods have grown 142 percent since 2000, ahead of the national average at 80 percent.

WASHINGTON—The trade deficit unexpectedly widened in November as U.S. imports jumped almost four times more than exports, gains that signal a rebound in global growth.

BLUE SPRINGS, MS—Masafumi Hamaguchi, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, loves running, professional wrestling and helping assemblers produce the highest quality vehicles possible.

MERIDIAN, MS—A new video provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Crucial.com assembles, tests and packages solid-state drives.

LONDON—Global sales of robots are expected to total $20.2 billion by 2016, growing at an annual rate of almost 11 percent annually, according to a new study.

DETROIT—An automotive journalist got an early Christmas present last December—the opportunity to watch his Buick Verano being assembled.

WASHINGTON—Assuming Congress can come to an agreement to cut spending and raise the debt limit by late February, the manufacturing sector can expect slow growth heading into 2013, according to MAPI.

LETCHWORTH, UK—Engineers at systems integrator Alphr Technology have developed a vision-guided robotic automation system to assemble plastic spigots.

MARYSVILLE, OH—Honda said that its U.S. factories have churned out their 1 millionth vehicle built for export. Honda predicts that in two years, it will export more cars built in North America than it imports from Japan.

WASHINGTON—NASA has received a patent for devising a “dynamically variable spot size” system for use in laser welding and laser brazing of metal components.