Tampa Steel Conference: Worthington CEO Geoff Gilmore talks trade and tariffs

At the Tampa Steel Conference 2025 on Feb. 4, SMU Senior Analyst David Schollaert had a Fireside Chat with Gilmore. They touched on the current tariff situation, as well as Gilmore’s college past as a basketball player, among many other issues.

(While the presentation is not available on video, some of Gilmore’s SMU Community Chats are.)

Worthington Steel first year

Gilmore noted that in its first year, “the company came out strong” and earnings have been “solid quarter over quarter.”

“You look at our performance in the stock market, and it’s outperformed our peers during that time,” he added.

Hoop dreams

As for his start in steel, Gilmore said he went to Valparaiso University in Indiana on a basketball scholarship.

On the advice of a friend who worked at Worthington’s Porter, Ind., facility, Gilmore interviewed and got hired in inside sales. And 27 years later, he’s still with the company, albeit in its new Worthington Steel form.

Opinion on Trump tariffs

Back at SMU Steel Summit in Atlanta, Gilmore had said the tariffs were negotiating tactics, and he’s still basically on board with that opinion.

“We’ve managed and operated successfully through the prior Trump administration, and so I think the approach he’s taking is not unusual,” Gilmore said.

He noted he wasn’t surprised really to see Trump come out taking a tougher line with Mexico and with Canada.

“I do feel like he had specific areas that he ran out and made promises, and it’s the border and it’s illegal immigrants and then it’s fentanyl,” Gilmore said. “And those are two borders that he feels have not been protected, and those two countries haven’t done enough to help with that situation.”

Gilmore believes these tariffs were a means of Trump bringing those countries to the negotiating table, and they “flinched.”

Additionally, he said there is a lot more room to maneuver with the USMCA agreement, which is up for review in 2026. That is, Trump suspects both countries are now “on their heels, and that’ll be a good opportunity to approach that subject.”

Tariff fallout?

Looking out over the audience in Tampa, Fla., Gilmore said, regarding the potential tariff impact: “I think for this group, probably the easiest place to start is on the supply chain. And if these tariffs were to take effect, how does that impact our supply chains?”

He noted that at Worthington Steel, almost everything they source is local, “and that’s on purpose.”

“That’s been our strategy, and that will continue to be our strategy – and that protects us in these types of situations,” he said.

“Certainly, there could be impacts to costs, and those have to get passed through the supply chain, and then, ultimately, if it gets to the consumer, that’s where we could have some difficulties.”

However, Gilmore doubted the possibility of an extended action between the three USMCA countries.

“Personally, I find it very hard to believe that we would be in a trade war with Mexico and Canada for more than a few months at any given time,” Gilmore said. “I don’t know how Mexico and Canada could survive that. That’s a recession for them. That’s a few points off GDP for us – my opinion.”

In the end, though, Gilmore is upbeat on the resilience of the US steel industry.

“This industry is used to dynamic situations,” he said. “We have faced every economic shock that exists over the last several years.”