Cotton fell to a 10-month low as escalating yarn supplies in India, the worldΆs largest user after China, signaled slowing global demand for textiles.

Cotton-yarn inventories in India have “remained high,” forcing mills to idle capacity, D.K. Nair, the secretary general of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, said by telephone from New Delhi. Prices in New York have plunged 56 percent since touching a record in March as demand dwindled.

“These guys are just sitting on major, major stockpiles of yarn, and itΆs caused the yarn market to plummet,” Chris Kramedjian, a risk-management consultant at FCStone Fibers & Textiles in Nashville, Tennessee, said by telephone. “ItΆs a pretty drastic situation.”

Cotton for December delivery fell 2.62 cents, or 2.6 percent, to settle at 96.84 a pound at 2:49 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the price tumbled by the 5-cent exchange limit to 94.46 cents, the lowest for a most-active contract since Sept. 16. The fiber reached a record of $2.197 on March 7.