Heat transfer characteristics in the vicinity of irradiated region of the beam of a selective laser melting (SLM) process affect the creation of the melted region during the deposition. The creation of the molten pool is greatly influenced by laser parameters and powder characteristics. The goal of the paper is to investigate the influence of laser parameters and powder porosity on thermal characteristics in the vicinity of the molten pool of the SLM process through repeated finite element analyses (FEAs). The power and the scan speed are chosen as the laser parameters. The laser is assumed to be a volumetric Gaussian heat flux model. Materials of the powder and the substrate are chosen as SUS17-4PH and S45C, respectively. Temperature dependent thermal properties for those material are used to perform the FEA. An appropriate efficiency of the heat flux is predicted by comparing the results of FEAs and those of experiments. The influence of laser parameters on temperature distributions in the vicinity of the melted region and the formation of the molten pool is examined. In addition, the effects of porosity of powders on heat transfer characteristics in the vicinity of the melted region are discussed.