Excellent strength properties and good weldability make the application of high strength finegrained steels (HSS) attractive for complex steel structures like bridges, offshore structures, railway wagons, cranes, ships or pipelines. In combination with newly developed high-performance welding processes like, e.g. gas metal arc (GMA)-laser hybrid welding, the quality and efficiency of these structures can be further improved. These welding technologies have short cooling times which can result in reduced strength and fatigue properties. By using inductive preheating as a simultaneous heating method, a controlled temperature cycle over the entire welding process can be obtained. In detail, this includes increasing the formability and toughness, controlling the hardness and reducing the cooling rate to avoid cold cracks and unfavorable residual stresses.