The aim of the presented investigation was to perform surface modification of the malleable iron by laser alloying and evaluate the influence of the laser heat treatment (LHT) on the microstructure of its surface layer (particularly in comparison to the other gray irons). After LHT of the malleable iron modified microstructure of its surface layer with very fine-crystalline, homogenous and hard (>1000HV0.1) melted zone was achieved. 4-fold increased hardness (in comparison to the hardness of matrix of the core material) of melted zone resulted not only from very fine and hardened microstructure, but also due to supersaturating with alloying elements. Gentle hardness changes on the cross section of the surface layer from the melted zone to the core material was noticed. The depth of melted zone was approx. 0.7 mm and it corresponded to the counted depth. It was stated that due to malleable iron specific thermophysical properties smaller depth of modified layer than achieved depth for flake irons and much smaller than the depth for nodular irons for the same LHT conditions could be expected.