The sector has warned vital goods, including toilet paper and food packaging, would be in short supply if freezes on logging shut sawmills for the long-term.

Forestry has been exempt from recent shutdowns, while South Australia reversed a pause on the sector in July after just 24 hours.

Australian Forest Products Association chief executive Ross Hampton said the industry's importance was understood in other jurisdictions, and was "taken aback" by Thursday's decision.

"The communication came as a complete shock, because we were operating on the understanding that the states were communicating with each other," he told The Canberra Times.

"It's just a disaster and complete madness to have different lockdown rules in different places.

"We pretty much thought we had explained enough around the country by now, and that there was a national agreement on this."

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He confirmed the industry was lobbying ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, but was yet to receive a firm response.

"Those who were setting the system up in the ACT obviously had a huge amount of notice that this could this could come," he said.

"We're still hoping that it's just a blip and that there's just been some miscommunication. [We hope] it's not deliberate and that it'll be fixed very soon."

Mr Hampton accepted a number of sectors had suffered throughout the pandemic, conceding the forestry industry's "less glamorous" impact may be "hard to grasp".

But he warned essential products, like food packaging and toilet paper, were not possible without functioning sawmills.

"If you walk into a supermarket, you will see it is just floor-to-ceiling cardboard. That all comes through forestry," he said.

"No one can successfully make the argument that we're going to stop eating food and stop having toilet paper."

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Capital Battens supplies roofing material for 60,000 residences annually, spread across every state on the eastern seaboard.

Its general manager Vince Erasmus warned the ACT's "out-of-step" approach could have flow-on effects for construction outside the territory's borders.

"The government in all states are trying to get the construction industry going because of its contribution to the GDP of the country," he said,

"This roofing material is an integral part of that. If we can't supply that material, it will have a profound effect on that industry."

He said the nature of logging, done outside and with workers generally spaced, meant transmission was less likely.

"It lends itself to a good Covid plan [and] for it to be able to continue," he said.

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