To provide a surface-coated cermet cutting tool having a hard coating layer exhibiting superior abrasion resistance under a high speed heavy cutting condition.

This cutting tool is constituted by physically depositing the hard coating layer, having a structure of dispersively distributing an aluminum oxide phase at a rate of 1 to 15 area% on a basis material composed of composite nitride of Al, Ti and B (boron), allowing an Al maximum inclusion point and a Ti maximum inclusion point to alternately and repeatedly exist at a predetermined interval in the layer thickness direction in the basis material, satisfying a specific composition formula : (Al1-(E+Z)TiEBZ)N on the Al maximum inclusion point and a specific composition formula : (Ti1-(X+Z)AlXBZ)N on the Ti maximum inclusion point, and being 0.01 to 0.1 μm in an interval between the adjacent Al maximum inclusion point and Ti maximum inclusion point, in the average layer thickness of 1 to 15 μm, on a surface of a cermet base body composed of tungsten carbide group cemented carbide or tungsten carbonitride-based cermet.