Ovako Steel is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of ball bearing steel. In the manufacturing route of ball bearing steel, wire drawing is one of the important steps for the production of wire products. Wire drawing dies used in the production at Ovako in Hällefors are today made of cemented carbide. The aim of this study was to investigate the friction and wear characteristics of a number of CVD- and PVD-coatings, deposited on the Ovako steel grade Ovatec 677, in sliding contact with the steel grade Ovako 803 using pin-on-disc testing. Based on the results obtained from this pin-on-disc investigation, three coatings were chosen to be deposited on drawing dies made of Ovatec 677. An introductory study of cemented carbide dies indicated that the coating should have low friction in the lubricated contact, and preferably also under local dry contact conditions, with steel to reduce the frictional heat since thermal softening of the steel substrate must be avoided. It also showed that the coating should have a smooth surface topography in order to reduce the material pick-up tendency and adhesive wear of the coating material. The coating should also show a high wear resistance/cracking resistance, i.e. a combination of high hardness and toughness. With these requirements in mind, two different coatings, a PVD CrC/C-coating, a CVD TiC-coating and a dual-layer TiC/CrC/C-coating, were found to be the most suitable for deposition on wire drawing dies.