ROANOKE, IN—General Motors Co. is investing $24 million to upgrade its Fort Wayne Assembly plant here to increase production of the all-new Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups, especially crew cab models.

BEIJING—The United States cannot use pressure to force a trade deal on China, a senior Chinese official and trade negotiator said on Sunday, refusing to be drawn on whether the leaders of the two countries would meet at the G20 summit to bash out an agreement.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL—The University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering recently unveiled a cutting-edge laboratory donated by the Omron Foundation, the charitable arm of automation technology provider Omron in the United States.

DETROIT—Close to 2,200 fastener professionals participated in the second annual Fastener Fair USA here in late May, surpassing its inaugural show last year in Cleveland. More than 260 exhibitors from 15 countries connected with customers in the aerospace, automotive, civil engineering, construction, energy, and machinery and other industries.

PARIS—Fiat Chrysler proposed on Monday to merge with France’s Renault to create the world’s third-biggest automaker (worth $40 billion) and combine forces in the race to make electric and autonomous vehicles.

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, PA—ASTM International’s committee on additive manufacturing technologies is developing a standard for mechanical testing of additive-manufactured plastics.

BOSTON—Nearly one in four exports from Massachusetts is a medical device, making the state No. 1 in the nation in share of exports of medical devices as a percentage of total exports, according to a report by the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council. 

TORONTO—Assembling a microrobot used to require a pair of needle-nosed tweezers, a microscope, steady hands, and at least eight hours. But, now University of Toronto engineering researchers have developed a method that requires only a 3D printer and 20 minutes.

HICKORY, NC—Design Foundry is investing more than $3.1 million to open a new furniture assembly plant here that will create 202 jobs over the next five years.

DEARBORN, MI—Ford Motor Co. said Monday that it is laying off about 7,000 managers and other salaried employees, about 10 percent of its white-collar workforce across the globe, as part of a restructuring plan designed to save the number two automaker $600 million annually.