China's steel futures bounced back on Tuesday, snapping three sessions of losses, as fresh winter anti-pollution plans issued by the environment ministry raised supply concerns.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment set winter anti-pollution target plans for Yangtze river delta region and Fenwei plains to cut concentrations of tiny airborne smog particles. The plan includes imposition of further curbs on steel mills that exceeded utilisation rates last year.

The move sent the most-active construction steel rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, for January 2020 delivery, up as much as 2.5% to a 3,452 yuan ($493.56) per tonne, the highest since end-September. The contract closed 2.4% higher at 3,449 yuan per tonne.

Futures for hot-rolled coil steel, used in cars and home appliances, climbed 1.8% to 3,380 yuan per tonne.

Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for January delivery, surged 2.5% to 607 yuan a tonne after Brazilian mining giant Vale SA lowered its iron ore and pellets sales outlook.

Shipment of the steelmaking raw material from Brazil and Australia stood at 22.3 million tonnes last week, down by 2.5 million tonnes compared with a week earlier, data compiled by Mysteel consultancy showed.

Benchmark spot 62% iron ore for delivery to China dropped 3.1% to $79.5 a tonne on Monday from Nov.8, the lowest level since January 29.

Other steelmaking ingredients were little changed, with Dalian coking coal edging down 0.04% to 1,230 yuan per tonne, while Dalian coke inched up 0.1% to 1,719 yuan per tonne.

Shanghai stainless steel future, for February 2020 delivery, extended losses as they slipped 0.1% to 14,385 yuan per tonne.

China's Jingye Group said on Monday it has reached a provisional deal to buy British Steel and promised to invest 1.2 billion pounds ($1.54 billion) over the next decade and save thousands of jobs.

JFE Holdings Inc expects profits from its steel segment to fall to zero in the year to March 2020 due to slumping Asian markets and weaker local demand.