The technology of Semi-Solid Forging(SSF) has been actively developed to fabricate near net shape products using light and hardly formable materials. Generally the SSF process is composed of slug is compressed during a certain holding time in order to completely fill the die cavity and accelerate the solidification rate. The decision of compression time is important since it can affect microstructural characteristics, mechanical properties and shape of products.. In order to determine it proper overall heat transfer coefficient between the slug and dies should be investigated. This paper presents the procedure to find the overall heat transfer coefficient between the slug and dies by nonlinear optimization of temperature and solid fraction for a cylindrical slug at compression step in closed-die semi-solid forging. In finite ele-ment heat transfer analysis release of latent heat during solidification was considered. The influence of the predicted compression time on miscrostructural characteristics mechanimcal properties and shape of products is finally investigated by experiment.