Cemented carbides are the best-known composite materials produced by powder metallurgical processes. They consist of a hard carbide phase, usually tungsten carbide, combined with a much softer and tougher binder material, usually cobalt. Due to the combination of excellent mechanical, thermal and other properties, they are suitable for numerous industrial applications. The paper describes the chemical composition and microstructure of the most commercially known WC-Co cemented carbides and briefly compares them with cemented carbides containing iron and nickel as binders. The manufacturing process of cemented carbides consists of numerous steps that require strict control of the parameters in order to obtain the material with the desired properties. At the end of the production process, it is possible to carry out a thermal diffusion treatment for boronisation or vapour phase coating to improve the tribological and corrosive properties. Based on the literature review carried out for this thesis, it was found that the properties, microstructure and chemical composition of cemented carbides and the parameters of the production processes are very closely related, which is why their production is a much more complex and demanding process compared to the production processes of some conventional metallic materials and alloys.