BEIJING — The failure of Chinese leaders to tackle the problem of excess industrial production has intensified an economic slowdown in the country and threatens to wreak havoc on global markets, a prominent European business association said in a new report on Monday.

Warning that the effects of overcapacity had become “ever more destructive,” the report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China blamed government policies and recalcitrant officials for inefficiencies across many of China’s major industries, including steel, cement and chemicals.

“Without a sustained effort to address it now, overcapacity may well seriously impede the effectiveness of China’s economic reform agenda,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the chamber. He said ineffective policies and parochialism among provincial officials had exacerbated the problem.

China has for decades grappled with overcapacity, which occurs when demand for a product falls below what an industry is capable of producing. But the problem has worsened significantly in recent years, as the government has pumped capital into heavy industries like shipbuilding and glassmaking, even as global demand has fallen.