Simple shear, uniaxial tension–compression and bending tests were used to determine the cyclic behaviour of two sheet metals: DP600 and AKDQ. The Yoshida–Uemori two-surface model along with Hill’s quadratic yield function was used to simulate the behaviour of these two materials in each test. For each test, a set of material constants was identified such that the error between the simulated and experimental responses is minimized. Using the material constants obtained from one test, the other tests were simulated to see whether the set of constants obtained from this test is able to describe the material response in the other tests. The results show that depending on the material, the set of constants obtained from one test may or may not be able to reproduce the material response in the other tests. Finally, each set of constants was used to simulate the springback of a U-shaped part formed in a channel draw process. The predicted springback profiles obtained from each set of constants were compared with the experimental profile. It was found that all three tests are suitable to characterize the behaviour of DP600 sheets in view of predicting the springback of channel sections. For AKDQ, however, the error between the predicted and experimental springback profiles was significant regardless of the type of characterization test performed. But for this channel draw process, simulations based on material data obtained from the reverse bending test provided the best prediction of springback.