PURPOSE: To produce cermet capable of considerably improving wear, chipping and thermal shock resistance even at the time of high-speed cutting and also capable of considerably improving thermal shock resistance required at the time of wet cutting.

CONSTITUTION: A surface coating layer which is a single layer or consists of two or more layers is formed on the surface of cermet consisting of hard phase grains and a bonding phase. The average grain diameter of hard phase grains in the surface layer part of the cermet is larger than that in the interior, hard phase grains having ≥2μm grain diameter exist in the surface layer part by at least 20% and the average grain diameter of hard phase grains in the interior is ≤3μm. The surface coating layer is made of at least one of carbides, nitrides, carbonitrides and oxides of group IVa elements of the periodic table and Al.