Austenitic stainless steels (SS) such as UNS S30403 are being used for numerous industrial applications due to their good mechanical properties and weldability. However in aggressive marine environments such as seawater, they suffer from localised corrosion. Even though newly developed highly alloyed SS’s possess very high pitting resistance, they are susceptible to the formation of secondary phases In the present study, a laser surface alloying technique was employed for the formation of highly alloyed austenitic stainless steel surfaces on conventional 304 SS substrate. Microstructural characterisation by optical and SEM revealed finer cells of austenitic phase in the laser alloyed zones with molybdenum contents in the range of 3 to 15 wt%. The pitting corrosion resistance of the surface alloys were ascertained by immersion and potentiodynamic polarisation tests and the repassivation behaviour by cyclic polarisation tests. Also the influence of microstructural features on pitting behaviour of highly alloyed and laser surface alloyed steels is studied. Keywords : pitting corrosion, laser surface alloying, secondary phases, molybdenum, repssivation, superaustenitics.