Sanjeev Gupta, founder of international metals firm Liberty House, holds the keys to two mothballed Scottish steel plants that have lain empty for six months.

The British steel industry is on the brink of collapse, with Tata Steel selling off its UK business, but Gupta claims he can revive it in Scotland and South Wales.

Age: 44.

Born: Punjab, India.

Family business: His industrialist father owned a number of businesses including Victor Cycles.

Earliest memories: Gupta told the MailOnline his earliest memories are of being in steel plants and engineering factories.

Education: At age 12, Gupta moved to England to attend boarding school at St Edmunds College, Canterbury - past alumni also include Orlando Bloom. Gupta attended Trinity College Cambridge, where he graduated in 1995 with a 2:1. He was thrown out of halls for registering the company Liberty House at the college, breaching the university's charitable status, and switched to a management degree in his final year. He was subsequently awarded his Masters from Trinity College Cambridge.

Lives: In a mansion in Chepstow, close to his recently acquired Newport steel plant.

Liberty House was set up by Gupta at age 19 in his bedroom at while at university.

It has four financial hubs in London, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Annual Liberty House turnover is approaching $5bn, covering steel, raw materials and non-ferrous metals, employing more than 2000 people globally.

Raw materials include iron ore fines, iron ore lumps, iron ore pellets, pig iron, scrap, hot briquetted iron, dry briquetted iron, metallics, coking coal, coke and thermal coal.

The company sources thermal coal for power plants that are allied to ferrous production units and also supply stand-alone power plants.

The largest bulk of steel trade comes from products sold as input materials for industries, although it does source finished products including wire rods, deformed bars , cold-rolled and coated steels.

In terms of non-ferrous materials, the company trades in nickel, copper, zinc and tin.

Liberty House says it expects production at its two Scottish plants to begin in the second half of 2016 and plans to employ around 150 staff, although its plans are dependent on the overall demand for steel.