Abstract: High speed steel surfacing layers containing different mass fractions (0-0.4%) of cerium were deposited by tungsten inert gas arc welding on the low carbon steel plate, and then the microstructure, phase composition, hardness and wear resistance of surfacing layers were studied. The results show that with the cerium mass fractions of 0-0.4%, the microstructure of the surfacing layer was composed of martensite, retained austensite and carbides, such as VC, WC and Cr₂₃C₆. With the increase of cerium content, the surface hardness and wear resistance of the surfacing layer increased first and then decreased. When the cerium mass fraction was 0.1%, the surface hardness of the surfacing layer reached the highest value of 61.6 HRC, the wear loss had the lowest value of 87.75×10² g·m^-2, and the groove formed by wear was the shallowest, indicating that the wear resistance was the best.